Archaic period in the history of Greece. archaic era

The archaic period in the history of Greece is usually called the VIII - VI centuries. BC e. According to some researchers, this is the time of the most intensive development of ancient society. Indeed, over the course of three centuries, many important discoveries were made that determined the nature of the technical basis of ancient society, those socio-economic and political phenomena developed that gave ancient society a certain specificity in comparison with other slave-owning societies: classical slavery; system of money circulation and market; the main form of political organization is the policy; the concept of the sovereignty of the people and the democratic form of government. At the same time, the main ethical norms and principles of morality, aesthetic ideals were developed, which had an impact on the ancient world throughout its history until the emergence of Christianity. Finally, during this period, the main phenomena of ancient culture were born: philosophy and science, the main genres of literature, theater, order architecture, sports.

In order to more clearly imagine the dynamics of the development of society in the archaic period, let us give such a comparison. Around 800 BC e. Greeks lived in a limited area of ​​the south of the Balkan Peninsula, the islands of the Aegean Sea and the western coast of Asia Minor. Around 500 BC e. they already occupy the shores of the Mediterranean from Spain to the Levant and from Africa to the Crimea. Around 800 BC e. Greece is essentially a village world, a world of self-supporting small communities, by 500 BC. e. Greece already has a mass of small towns with local markets, monetary relations imperiously invade the economy, trade relations cover the entire Mediterranean, objects of exchange are not only luxury goods, but also everyday goods. Around 800 BC e. Greek society is a simple, primitive social structure dominated by the peasantry, not much different from the aristocracy, and with an insignificant number of slaves. Around 500 BC e. Greece has already gone through an era of great social change, the classical slave is becoming one of the main elements of the social structure, along with the peasantry there are other socio-professional groups; various forms of political organization are known: monarchy, tyranny, oligarchy, aristocratic and democratic republic. In 800 BC. e. in Greece there are still practically no temples, theaters, stadiums. In 500 BC. e. Greece is a country with many beautiful public buildings, the ruins of which still delight us. Emerging and developing lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, natural philosophy.

The rapid rise prepared by the previous development, the spread of iron tools had manifold consequences for society. Increasing labor productivity in agriculture and handicraft led to an increase in excess product. An increasing number of people were released from the agricultural sector, which ensured the rapid growth of the craft. The separation of the agricultural and handicraft sectors of the economy led to a regular exchange between them, the emergence of a market and a universal equivalent - minted coins. A new type of wealth - money - begins to compete with the old - landed property, disintegrating traditional relationships.

As a result, there is a rapid decomposition of primitive communal relations and the emergence of new forms of socio-economic and political organization of society. This process proceeds in different ways in different parts of Hellas, but everywhere it entails the brewing of social conflicts between the emerging aristocracy and the ordinary population, primarily communal peasants, and then other strata.

The formation of the Greek aristocracy by modern researchers usually refers to the VIII century. BC e. The aristocracy of that time is a limited group of people, which is characterized by a special lifestyle and system of values ​​that are mandatory for its members. She occupied a dominant position in the sphere of public life, especially in the administration of justice, played a leading role in the war, since only noble warriors had heavy weapons, and therefore the battles were essentially duels of aristocrats. The aristocracy sought to completely put under its control the ordinary members of society, turn them into an exploited mass. According to modern researchers, the attack of the aristocracy on ordinary fellow citizens began in the VIII century BC. e. Little is known about the details of this process, but its main results can be judged from the example of Athens, where the growing influence of the aristocracy led to the creation of a clearly defined estate structure, to a gradual reduction in the stratum of the free peasantry and an increase in the number of dependents.

Closely related to this situation is the phenomenon of a huge historical significance as "the great Greek colonization". From the middle of the VIII century BC. e. Greeks were forced to leave their homeland and move to other countries.

Over the course of three centuries, they created many colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Colonization developed in three main directions: western (Sicily, Southern Italy, Southern France and further the eastern coast of Spain), northern (Thracian coast of the Aegean Sea, the region of the straits leading from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, and its coast) and southeast (the coast of North Africa and the Levant).

Modern researchers believe that its main incentive was the lack of land. Greece suffered from both absolute agrarian overpopulation (an increase in population due to a general economic recovery) and relative (lack of land among the poorest peasants due to the concentration of land ownership in the hands of the nobility) Among the reasons for colonization they also refer to the political struggle, which usually reflected the main social contradiction of the era - the struggle for land, as a result of which the defeated in the civil war were often forced to leave their homeland and move overseas. There were also trade motives, the desire of the Greeks to control trade routes.

Pioneers Greek colonization the cities of Chalkis and Eretria, located on the island of Euboea, began in the VIII century BC. e., apparently the most advanced cities of Greece, the most important centers of metallurgical production. Later, Corinth, Megara, Asia Minor cities, especially Miletus, joined the colonization.

Colonization had a huge impact on the development of ancient Greek society, especially in the economic sphere. the local population, neighboring with them, began to receive Greek handicrafts, especially artistic ones, as well as some types of agricultural products (the best varieties of wines, olive oil, etc.). In return, the colonies supplied Greece with grain and other foodstuffs, as well as raw materials (wood, metal, etc.). As a result, Greek craft received an impetus to further development, and agriculture began to acquire a commercial character. Thus, colonization muffled social conflicts in Greece, bringing out the mass of the landless population and at the same time contributing to a change in the social and economic structure of Greek society.

The attack of the aristocracy on the rights of the demos reached its climax in the 7th century BC. e., causing reciprocal resistance In Greek society, a special social stratum of people appears who, most often through crafts and trade, have accumulated significant wealth, led an aristocratic lifestyle, but did not have the hereditary privileges of the nobility bitterly remarks the poet Theognidus of Megara. This new layer greedily rushed to control, thereby becoming an ally of the Peasants in the struggle against the nobility. The first successes in this struggle were most often associated with the establishment of written laws that limited the arbitrariness of the aristocracy.

Resistance to the growing domination of the nobility was facilitated by at least three circumstances. Around 675 - 600 years. BC e. thanks to technical progress there is a kind of revolution in military affairs Heavy armor becomes available to ordinary citizens, and the aristocracy loses its advantage in the military sphere Due to the scarcity of the country's natural resources, the Greek aristocracy could not be compared with the aristocracy of the East Due to the peculiarities of historical development in Iron Age Greece, there were no such economic institutions (similar to the temple farms of the East), relying on which it would be possible to exploit the peasantry. Even the peasants who were dependent on the aristocrats were not economically connected with the farms of the latter. All this predetermined the fragility of the domination of the nobility in society. Finally, the force that prevented the strengthening of the positions of aristocrats was their ethics. It had an “agonal” (competitive) character: each aristocrat, in accordance with the ethical standards inherent in this layer, strove to be the first everywhere - on the battlefield, in sports, in politics This system of values ​​was created by the nobility earlier and transferred to a new historical period, when, in order to ensure domination, it needed the rallying of all forces. However, the aristocracy could not achieve this.

Aggravation of social conflicts in the 7th - 6th centuries. BC e. led to the birth in many Greek cities of tyranny, that is, the sole power of the ruler.

At that time, the concept of "tyranny" did not yet have the negative connotation inherent in it today. The tyrants pursued an active foreign policy, created powerful armed forces, decorated and improved their cities. However, the early tyranny as a regime could not last long. The historical doom of tyranny was explained by its internal inconsistency. The overthrow of the rule of the nobility and the struggle against it were impossible without the support of the masses. The peasantry, which benefited from this policy, initially supported the tyrants, but as the threat posed by the aristocracy weakened, they gradually came to realize the uselessness of the tyrannical regime.

Tyranny was not a stage characteristic of the life of all policies. It was most typical for those cities that had become large trade and craft centers back in the archaic era. The process of the formation of the classical polis, due to the relative abundance of sources, is best known to us from the example of Athens.

The history of Athens in the archaic era is the history of the formation of a democratic polis. The monopoly on political power in the period under review belonged here to the nobility - Eupatrides, who gradually turned ordinary citizens into a dependent mass. This process already in the 7th century led to outbreaks of social conflicts.

Fundamental changes occur at the beginning of the VI century. BC e, and they are connected with the reforms of Solon. The most important of these was the so-called sisachfia (“shaking off the burden”). As a result of this reform, the peasants, who, due to debts, had essentially become shareholders of their own land, restored their status as owners. At the same time, it was forbidden to enslave the Athenians for debts. Of great importance were the reforms that undermined the political dominance of the nobility. From now on, the scope of political rights depended not on the nobility, but on the size of the property (all citizens of the policy were divided into four property categories). In accordance with this division, the military organization of Athens was also rebuilt. A new governing body was created - the council (bule), the importance of the people's assembly increased.

Solon's reforms, despite their radical nature, by no means solved all the problems. The aggravation of the social struggle in Athens led in 560 BC. e. to the establishment of the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons, which lasted here intermittently until 510 BC. e. Peisistrat pursued an active foreign policy, strengthening the position of Athens on the sea trade routes. Crafts flourished in the city, trade developed, and large-scale construction was carried out. Athens turned into one of the largest economic centers of Hellas. Under the successors of Pisistratus, this regime fell, which again caused an aggravation of social contradictions. Soon after 509 BC. e. under the leadership of Cleisthenes, a new series of reforms is being carried out that finally approved the democratic system. The most important of them is the reform of the suffrage: henceforth, all citizens, regardless of their property status, had equal political rights. The system of territorial division was changed, destroying the influence of aristocrats in the field.

Sparta gives a different development option. Having captured Lakonika and enslaved the local population, the Doryans already in the 9th century. BC e. created a state in Sparta. Born very early as a result of the conquest, it retained many primitive features in its structure. In the future, the Spartans, during the course of two wars, sought to conquer Messenia, a region in the west of the Peloponnese. The internal social conflict between the nobility and ordinary citizenship, which was already brewing earlier, broke out in Sparta during the Second Messenian War. In its main features, it resembled the conflicts that existed around the same time in other parts of Greece. A long struggle between ordinary Spartans and the aristocracy led to the reorganization of Spartan society. A system is being created, which at a later time was called Likurgov, after the name of the legislator who allegedly established it. Of course, tradition simplifies the picture, because this system was not created immediately, but took shape gradually. Having overcome the internal crisis, Sparta was able to conquer Messenia and turned into the most powerful state of the Peloponnese and, perhaps, all of Greece.

All land in Laconica and Messenia was divided into equal plots - cleres, which each Spartiate received in temporary possession, after his death the land was returned to the state. Other measures also served the desire for complete equality of the Spartans: a harsh system of education aimed at forming an ideal warrior, the strictest regulation of all aspects of the life of citizens - the Spartans lived as if they were in a military camp, the prohibition to engage in agriculture, craft and trade, use gold and silver; limiting contact with the outside world. The political system was also reformed. Along with the kings, who performed the functions of military leaders, judges and priests, the council of elders (gerousia) and the people's assembly (apella), a new governing body appeared - a college of five ephors (guards). The ephorate was the highest control body, dazzling so that no one deviates a single step from the principles of the Spartan system, which became the object of pride of the Spartans, who believed that they had achieved the ideal of equality.

In historiography, there is traditionally a view of Sparta as a militarized, militaristic state, and some authoritative experts even call it a "police" state. There is some merit in this definition. The basis on which the “community of equals” was based, i.e. the collective of equal and full-fledged, completely unemployed productive labor of the Spartans, was the exploited mass of the enslaved population of Laconica and Messenia - the helots. Scientists have been arguing for many years about how to determine the position of this segment of the population. Many tend to regard helots as government slaves. Helots owned plots of land, tools, had economic independence, but they were obliged to transfer a certain share of the crop to their masters - the Spartans, ensuring their existence. According to modern researchers, this share was approximately 1/6-1/7 of the crop. Deprived of all political rights, the helots belonged entirely to the state, which disposed not only of their property, but also of their lives. The slightest protest from the helots was severely punished.

In the Spartan policy, there was another social group - the perieks ("living around"), the descendants of the Dorians who were not part of the citizens of Sparta. They lived in communities, had internal self-government under the supervision of Spartan officials, were engaged in agriculture, crafts and trade. Perieki were obliged to put up military contingents. Similar social conditions and close to the Spartan system are known in Crete, in Argos, Thessaly and other areas.

Like all other spheres of life, Greek culture in the archaic era experienced rapid changes. In these centuries, the development of ethnic identity took place, the Greeks gradually began to realize themselves as a single people, different from other peoples, whom they began to call barbarians. Ethnic self-consciousness found its manifestation in some social institutions. According to Greek tradition, starting from 776 BC. e. The Olympic Games began to be arranged, to which only Greeks were allowed.

In the era of the archaic, the main features of the ethics of ancient Greek society take shape. Her distinctive feature there was a combination of the emerging sense of collectivism and the agonistic (competitive) beginning. The formation of the policy as a special type of community that replaced the loose associations of the "heroic" era, brought to life a new, polis morality - collectivist in its basis, since the existence of an individual outside the framework of the policy was impossible . The military organization of the policy (phalanx formation) also contributed to the development of this morality. The highest valor of a citizen was to protect his policy: “It’s sweet to lose life, among the valiant fallen warriors, to a brave husband in battle, glad of his homeland” - these words of the Spartan poet Tirteus were perfectly expressed mentality of the new era, characterizing the system of values ​​that prevailed at that time. However, new morality preserved the principles of morality of the Homeric time with its leading principle of competitiveness. The nature of the political reforms in the policies determined the preservation of this morality, since it was not the aristocracy who was deprived of their rights, but ordinary citizenship was raised in terms of the scope of political rights to the level of the aristocracy. Because of this, the traditional ethics of the aristocracy spread among the masses, although in a modified form: the most important principle is who will serve the policy better.

Religion also experienced a certain transformation. The formation of a single Greek world with all local features led to the creation of a common pantheon for all Greeks. Evidence of this is Hesiod's poem "Theogony". The cosmogonic ideas of the Greeks did not fundamentally differ from the ideas of many other peoples.

The Greek worldview is characterized not only by polytheism, but also by the idea of ​​the universal animation of nature. Every natural phenomenon, every river, mountain, grove had its own deity. From the point of view of the Greek, there was no insurmountable line between the world of people and the world of gods, heroes acted as an intermediate link between them. Heroes such as Hercules, for their exploits, joined the world of the gods. The gods of the Greeks themselves were anthropomorphic, they experienced human passions and could suffer like people.

archaic era- the time of the formation of architecture. The primacy of public, primarily sacred, architecture is indisputable. The dwellings of that time are simple and primitive, all the forces of society are turned to monumental structures, primarily temples. Among them, the temples of the gods - the patrons of the community - excelled. The emerging sense of unity of the civil collective found its expression in the creation of such temples, which were considered the dwelling place of the gods. Early temples repeated the structure of the megaron of the 2nd millennium BC. e. A temple of a new type was born in Sparta, the ancient city of Hellas. Feature Greek architecture– application of orders, i.e. a special construction system that emphasizes the architectonics of the building, gives expressiveness to the load-bearing and carried structural elements, revealing their function. The order building usually has a stepped base; a number of bearing vertical supports were placed on it - columns that supported the carried parts - an entablature that reflected the design of the beam ceiling and roof. Initially, temples were built on acropolises - fortified hills, ancient centers of settlements. Later, in connection with the general democratization of society, changes occur in the location of the temples. They are now erected in the lower city, most often on the agora - the main square, the former center of public and business life of the policy. The temple as an institution contributed to the development of various art forms. The custom of bringing gifts to the temple was established early on; part of the booty captured from enemies, weapons, offerings on the occasion of deliverance from danger, etc. were donated to it. A significant part of these gifts were works of art. An important role was played by temples that gained all-Greek popularity, primarily the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The rivalry, first of noble families, and then of policies, contributed to the fact that the best works of art were concentrated here, and the territory of the sanctuary became something like a museum.

In the archaic era, monumental sculpture appeared - an art form previously unknown to Greece. Ancient sculptures were images roughly carved from wood, often inlaid with ivory and covered with sheets of bronze. Improvements in the technique of stone processing not only affected architecture, but also led to the emergence of stone sculpture, and in the technique of metal processing - to the casting of bronze sculpture. In the VII - VI centuries. BC e. sculpture is dominated by two types: nude male figure and draped women's. The birth of the statuary type of the naked figure of a man is associated with the main trends in the development of society. The statue depicts a beautiful and valiant citizen, a winner in sports competitions, who glorified his native city. According to the same type, tomb statues and images of deities began to be made. The appearance of relief is mainly associated with the custom of putting tombstones. Subsequently, reliefs in the form of complex multi-figure compositions became an indispensable part of the temple's entablature. Statues and reliefs were usually painted.

Greek monumental painting known much worse than vase painting. On the example of the latter, the main trends in the development of art are best traced: the emergence of realistic principles, the interaction of local art and influences that came from the East. In the 7th - early 6th centuries. BC e. dominated by Corinthian and Rhodes vases with colorful paintings of the so-called carpet style. They usually depicted floral ornaments and various animals and fantastic creatures arranged in a row. In the VI century. BC e. vase painting is dominated by the black-figure style: figures painted over with black lacquer stand out sharply against the reddish background of clay. Paintings on black-figure vases often consisted of multi-figured compositions based on mythological subjects: various episodes from the life of the Olympian gods, the exploits of Hercules and the Trojan War were popular. There were fewer stories related to everyday life people: the battle of hoplites, competitions of athletes, feast scenes, round dance of girls, etc.

Since individual images were executed in the form of black silhouettes against a background of clay, they give the impression of being flat. Vases made in different cities have only their characteristic features. The black-figure style reached its peak in Athens. Attic black-figure vases were distinguished by the elegance of forms, high technique of manufacture, and variety of subjects. Some vase painters signed their paintings, and thanks to this we know, for example, the name of Clytius, who painted a magnificent vessel for wine (crater): the painting consists of several belts, on which multi-figure compositions are presented. Another magnificent example of painting is the kylix of Exekia. The vase painter occupied the entire round surface of the wine bowl with one scene: the god Dionysus reclining on a ship sailing under a white sail, vines twisting near the mast, heavy clusters hanging down. Seven dolphins dive around, into which, according to myth, Dionysus turned the Tyrrhenian pirates.

greatest achievement Greek culture archaic era was the creation of alphabetic writing. By transforming the Phoenician syllabic system, the Greeks created a simple way to record information. In order to learn how to write and count, years of hard work were no longer needed, there was a “democratization” of the education system, which made it possible to gradually make almost all free inhabitants of Greece literate. Thus, knowledge was “secularized”, which became one of the reasons for the absence of a priestly class in Greece and contributed to an increase in the spiritual potential of society as a whole.

A phenomenon of exceptional importance for European culture, the emergence of philosophy, is associated with the era of the archaic. Philosophy is a fundamentally new approach to the knowledge of the world, sharply different from the one that dominated in the Near East and in Greece more early period. The transition from religious-mythological ideas about the world to its philosophical understanding meant a qualitative leap in the intellectual development of mankind. Statement and formulation of problems, reliance on the human mind as a means of knowledge, orientation towards the search for the causes of everything that happens in the world itself, and not outside it - this is what significantly distinguishes the philosophical approach to the world from the religious and mythological views. In modern scientific literature There are two main views on the emergence of philosophy. According to one, the birth of philosophy is a derivative of the development of science, the quantitative accumulation of positive knowledge resulted in a qualitative leap. According to another explanation, early Greek philosophy practically did not differ in anything, except for the way of expression, from the stage-by-stage earlier mythological system of knowledge of the world. However, in recent years, a view has been expressed that seems to be the most correct: philosophy was born from the social experience of a citizen of an early policy. The polis and the relations of citizens in it - this is the model by analogy with which the Greek philosophers saw the world. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the emergence of philosophy in its own early form- natural philosophy (i.e. philosophy, addressed primarily to the knowledge of the most general laws of the world) - takes place in the most advanced policies of Asia Minor. It is with them that the activities of the first philosophers - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes - are connected. The natural-philosophical teachings about the primary elements made it possible to build big picture world and explain it without resorting to the help of the gods. The philosophy that was born was spontaneously materialistic, the main thing in the work of its first representatives was the search for the material fundamental principles of everything that exists.

The founder of Ionian natural philosophy, Thales, considered such a fundamental principle to be water, which is in constant motion. Its transformations created and create all things, which in turn turn back into water. Thales represented the earth as a flat disk floating on the surface of primary water. Thales was also considered the founder of mathematics, astronomy and a number of other specific sciences. Comparing records of consecutive solar eclipses, he predicted an eclipse of the sun in 597 (or 585) BC. e. and explained it by the fact that the moon obscured the sun. According to Anaximander, the fundamental principle of everything is apeiron, indefinite, eternal and boundless matter, which is in constant motion. Anaximander gave the first formulation of the law of conservation of energy and created the first geometric model of the universe.

The materialism and dialectics of the Ionian natural philosophers were opposed by the Pythagoreans, followers of the teachings of Pythagoras, who created a religious and mystical community in southern Italy. The Pythagoreans considered mathematics to be the basis of the foundations, believing that not quality, but quantity, not substance, but form determine the essence of everything. Gradually, they began to identify things with numbers, depriving them of their material content. The abstract number turned into an absolute was conceived by them as the basis of the non-material essence of the world.

At the beginning of the archaic era, the dominant genre of literature was the epic, inherited from the previous era. The fixation of Homer's poems, carried out in Athens under Peisistratus, marked the end of the "epic" period. The epic, as a reflection of the experience of the whole society in the new conditions, had to give way to other types of literature. In this era, filled with violent social conflicts, lyrical genres are developing that reflect the experiences of the individual. Civicism distinguishes the poetry of Tyrtaeus, who inspired the Spartans in their struggle for the possession of Messenia. In his elegies, Tyrtaeus praised military prowess and expounded the norms of warrior behavior. And in later times they were sung during campaigns, they were also popular outside of Sparta as a hymn to polis patriotism. The work of Theognis, an aristocratic poet who realized the death of the aristocratic system and suffered from it, is permeated with hatred for the lower classes and a thirst for revenge:

Firmly trample on the empty-hearted people, mercilessly
I’ll sharpen with a sharp stick, press down with a heavy yoke!

A life full of adversity and suffering was lived by one of the first lyric poets - Archilochus. The son of an aristocrat and a slave, Archilochus, driven by need, went from his native Paros together with the colonists to Thasos, fought with the Thracians, served as a mercenary, visited “beautiful and happy” Italy, but found happiness nowhere:

I have my bread mixed in a sharp spear.
And in the spear - From under Ismar wine. I drink, leaning on a spear.

The work of another great lyricist, Alcaeus, reflected the turbulent political life of that time. Along with political motives, his poems also contain drinking ones, they sound the joy of life and the sadness of love, reflections on the inevitability of death and calls to friends to rejoice in life:

The rains are raging. Great cold
Carries from the sky. The rivers are all chained ..
Let's drive away the winter. blazing bright
Let's spread the fire. Generously sweet to me
Pour some wine. Then under the cheek
Give me a soft pillow.

“Sappho is violet-haired, pure, with a gentle smile!” - the poet addresses his great contemporary Sappho.

At the center of Sappho's work was a woman suffering from love and tormented by the pangs of jealousy, or a mother who tenderly loves her children. Sad motifs predominate in Sappho's poetry, which gives it a peculiar charm:

God equal seems to me fortunately
The person who is so close
Before you sits, your sounding gentle
listens to the voice
And a lovely laugh. At the same time I have
The heart would immediately stop beating.

Anacreon called his work the poetry of beauty, love and fun. He did not think about politics, wars, civil strife:

Sweet to me is not the one who, feasting, at a full cup of speech
He leads only about lawsuits and about a regrettable war,
Dear me, who, Muses and Cyprites, combining good gifts,
The rule sets itself to be more cheerful at the feast.

The poems of Anacreon, marked by an indisputable talent and enchanting in their form, had a huge impact on European, including Russian, poetry.

By the end of the archaic era is the birth fiction, represented by the works of logographers who collected local legends, genealogies of noble families, stories about the founding of policies. At the same time, theatrical art arose, the roots of which lie in folk rituals agricultural cults.

The achievements of ancient Greek civilization formed the basis of European culture

Early Greece

The turn of the III-II millennium BC is the most important stage in the history of Europe. It was then that societies, divided into classes, arose in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula and on the adjacent islands.

Around 2500 BC on many islands of the Aegean Sea and on the mainland, large metallurgical centers are being created. Significant progress is observed in ceramic production, where the potter's wheel began to be used. Thanks to the development of navigation, contacts between different regions are intensifying, technical and cultural innovations are spreading. Equally tangible was the progress in agriculture, associated with the creation of a new polycultural type (the so-called Mediterranean triad), which is based on the cultivation of cereals, primarily barley, grapes and olives. The proximity of the ancient civilizations of the Near East also had a great influence on the development of this region.

Painted vessel from the Old Palace in Phaistos. Around the 19th-18th centuries BC.

The initial stages of the formation of a class society and state in this region have not yet been sufficiently studied, and this is mainly due to the fact that researchers have relatively few sources at their disposal. Archaeological materials relating to this period cannot illuminate the political history, character social relations, and the oldest writing system that appeared in Crete (the so-called Linear A) has not yet been deciphered. Subsequently, the Greeks of the Balkan Peninsula adapted this letter to their language (the so-called Linear B). It was deciphered only in 1953 by the English scientists M. Ventris and J. Chadwick. But all texts are documents business reporting, and therefore the amount of information reported by them is limited. Certain information about society II millennium BC. saved famous poems Greeks "Iliad" and "Odyssey", as well as some myths. However, it is difficult to interpret these sources historically, since the reality in them is artistically transformed, the ideas and realities of different times are fused together and it is extremely difficult to isolate what indisputably belongs to the 2nd millennium BC.

According to some researchers, it is quite possible that the first centers of statehood appear on the Balkan Peninsula as early as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. But the process of formation of a class society and statehood in the southern part of the Balkan region was interrupted by the invasion of tribes from the north. Around the 22nd century BC. here appeared the actual Greek tribes, calling themselves Achaeans or Danae. Old, pre-Greek population, ethnicity which is not established, was partially displaced or destroyed by newcomers, partially assimilated. The conquerors stood at a lower level of development, and this circumstance affected a certain difference in the fate of the two parts of the region: the mainland and the island of Crete. Crete was not affected by the mentioned process and therefore for several centuries represented the zone of the most rapid socio-economic, political and cultural progress.

Minoan civilization

The Bronze Age civilization that originated in Crete is commonly referred to as the Minoan. This name was given to it by the English archaeologist A. Evans, who first discovered the monuments of this civilization during excavations of the palace at Knossos. The Greek mythological tradition considered Knossos the residence of King Minos, the powerful ruler of Crete and many other islands of the Aegean. Here, the Minotaur (half-man, half-bull) was born to Queen Pasiphae, for whom Daedalus built a labyrinth at Knossos.

In the second half of the 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC, apparently, all the lands suitable for agriculture, the leading branch of the economy of Crete, were developed. Animal husbandry also played an important role. Significant progress was observed in the craft. The growth of labor productivity, the creation of a surplus product led to the fact that part of it could also be used in intercommunal exchange. For Crete, this was of particular importance, since the island lay at the crossroads of ancient sea routes.

At the turn of III and II millennium BC. the first states appear on Crete. Initially, there were four of them with centers-palaces in Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, Kato-Zakro. It is the appearance of palaces that testifies to the class character of society and the development of statehood.

The era of "palace civilization" in Crete covers approximately 600 years: from 2000 to 1400 BC. Around 1700 BC palaces were destroyed. According to some scientists, this was caused by natural disasters (most likely, a grandiose earthquake), others see it as the result of social conflicts, a consequence of the struggle of the masses. However, the catastrophe that broke out briefly delayed development. Soon, new ones appeared on the site of the destroyed palaces, surpassing the old ones in monumentality and luxury.

We know a little more about the era of the "new palaces". For example, the four palaces mentioned above, a number of settlements, and necropolises have been well studied. The palace of Knossos excavated by A. Evans is the best studied - a grandiose structure on a common platform (about 1 ha). Although only one floor has survived to our time, it is quite clear that the building was two-, and possibly three-story. The palace had an excellent water supply and sewerage system, terracotta baths in special rooms, thoughtful ventilation and lighting. Many household items are made at a high artistic level, some of them are made of precious metals. The walls of the palace premises were decorated with magnificent paintings that reproduced the surrounding nature or scenes from the life of its inhabitants. Most of the basement floor was occupied by pantries, which stored wine, olive oil, grain, local handicrafts, as well as goods coming from distant countries. The palace also housed craft workshops, where jewelers, potters, and vase painters worked.

The question of the social and political organization of the Cretan society is solved by scientists in different ways, but on the basis of the available data, it can be assumed that the palace economy was the basis of the economic life of the state. The Cretan society of the heyday was probably a theocracy: in one person the functions of king and high priest were combined. Slaves had already appeared, but their number remained insignificant.

The apogee of the Minoan civilization falls on the 16th - first half of the 15th centuries. BC. At the beginning of this period, the unification of all Crete under the rule of the Knossos rulers takes place. Greek tradition considers King Minos the first "lord of the sea" - he built a large fleet, destroyed piracy and established his dominance in the Aegean Sea. At the end of the XV century. BC. catastrophe struck Crete, causing death blow Minoan civilization. Obviously, it happened because of the grandiose volcanic eruption on the island of Thira. Most of the settlements and palaces perished. Taking advantage of this, the Achaeans invaded the island from the Balkans. From the advanced center of the Mediterranean, Crete turns into a province of Achaean Greece.

Achaean civilization

The heyday of the civilization of Achaean Greece comes in the XV-XIII centuries. BC. The center of this civilization was, obviously, Argolis. Expanding, it then covered the entire Peloponnese, Central Greece (Attica, Boeotia, Phocis), a significant part of Northern Greece (Thessaly), as well as many islands of the Aegean Sea.

As in Crete, palaces played an important role in the life of society. The most significant of them were discovered in Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Athens, Thebes, Orchomenus, Iolka. But the Achaean palaces differ sharply from the Cretan ones: they are all powerful citadels. The most impressive example is the citadel of Tiryns, whose walls are made of huge limestone blocks, sometimes reaching 12 tons in weight. The thickness of the walls exceeded 4.5 m, while the height of only the surviving part was 7.5 m.

Like the Cretan palaces, the Achaean palaces have the same layout, but they are characterized by a clear symmetry. The Pylos Palace has been best studied by archaeologists. It was two-story and consisted of several dozen rooms: front rooms, sacral rooms, the chambers of the king and queen, their households: warehouses where they stored grain, wine, olive oil, household items; utility rooms. An important part of the palace was an arsenal with a supply of weapons. The palace had an established water supply and sewerage system. The walls of many rooms were decorated with paintings, often with battle scenes.

Of exceptional importance for the history of the II millennium BC. present the results of excavations begun by Greek archaeologists in 1967 on the island of Thira, the southernmost of the Cyclades. Under a layer of volcanic ash, the remains of a city that died during a volcanic eruption were found here. The excavations uncovered cobbled streets, large buildings, of which the second and even third floors with stairs leading to them have been preserved. The paintings on the walls of buildings are striking: blue monkeys, stylized antelopes, two fighting boys, one of them has a special glove on his hand. Against the background of red, yellow and green rocks covered with grass and moss, red lilies on yellow stems and swallows flying above them. Apparently, this is how the artist painted a picture of the arrival of spring, and the painting makes it possible to judge how this blooming island looked before disaster struck. About the same houses they lived in, on what ships the then Tirenians sailed, can be judged by another painting, depicting, obviously, a panorama of the city and the sea with many ships.

Achaean economy

The basis of the economic structure of the Achaean society was the palace economy, which included large craft workshops - processing agricultural products, spinning and sewing, metallurgical and metalworking, manufacturing tools and weapons. The palace economy also controlled the main types of handicraft activities throughout the territory, metalworking was under especially strict control.

The owner of the land, as follows from the documents of the Pylos archive, was the palace. All lands were divided into two categories: privately owned and communal. The lowest stratum of society were slaves, but they were relatively few and belonged mainly to the palace. Slaves differed in their position, and there was no clear boundary between slaves and freemen. An important social group was formally free community members. They had their own plots of land, house, economy, but depended on the palace economically and politically. The ruling stratum included, first of all, a developed bureaucratic apparatus - central and local. At the head of the state was the king ("vanaka"), who had political and sacred functions.

Political events

The political history of Achaean Greece is poorly known. Some scholars write about a single Achaean state under the hegemony of Mycenae. However, it is more correct to consider that each palace is the center of an independent state, between which military conflicts often arose. This, however, did not exclude the possibility of a temporary unification of the Achaean kingdoms. Apparently, this was the case during the campaign against Troy, the events of which formed the basis of the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is possible that the Trojan War is one of the episodes of a broad colonization movement that began in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Achaean settlements appeared on the western and southern coasts of Asia Minor, the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus were actively settled, Achaean trading posts were opened in Sicily and southern Italy. The Achaeans participated in that powerful onslaught on the coastal countries of the Near East, which is usually called the movement of "sea peoples".

In the XIII century. BC. prosperous Achaean states began to feel the approach of formidable events. In many places, new fortifications are being erected and old fortifications are being repaired. As evidenced archaeological excavations, the catastrophe broke out at the very end of the XIII century. BC. Almost all palaces and most of the settlements were destroyed. The agony of the Achaean civilization lasted about a hundred years, and at the end of the XII century. BC. the last Achaean palace in Iolka perished. The population was partially destroyed, partially entrenched in areas unsuitable for habitation, or even emigrated from the country altogether.

Scientists have long been looking for the causes of these fatal events in the history of Greece. There are a number of hypotheses that explain the destruction of the Achaean civilization. The most convincing, in our opinion, is the following. At the end of the XIII century. BC. northern peoples moved to Greece, including the Dorian Greeks, as well as other tribes. Mass migration, however, did not occur then, and only later the Dorians gradually began to penetrate into the devastated territory. The old Achaean population survived only in some areas, for example, in Attica. The Achaeans expelled from Greece settled in eastbound, occupying the islands of the Aegean Sea, the western coast of Asia Minor and Cyprus.

Dark Ages of Greece

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XI-IX centuries BC. e. in the history of Greece, scientists call the dark ages. The main sources of this period are archaeological materials and epic poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". The poems describe the campaign of the Achaeans near Troy, the capture of the city and the return home after many adventures of one of the heroes of the Trojan War - Odysseus. Thus, the main content of the poems should reflect the life of the Achaean society at the very end of its heyday. But Homer himself, apparently, lived already in the 8th century. BC. and many realities, life and relations of the past knew poorly. Moreover, he perceived the events of the past through the prism of his time. Finally, it is necessary to take into account common features epos: hyperbolization, certain stereotypes in stories about heroes and their way of life, deliberate archaization.

During the described period, the main occupation of the population of Greece was still agriculture. Apparently, most of the cultivated land was occupied by cereals, horticulture and winemaking played an important role; olives continued to be one of the leading crops. Cattle breeding also developed. Judging by the poems of Homer, cattle acted as a "universal equivalent." So, in the Iliad, a large tripod is valued at twelve bulls, and a skilled craftswoman - at four bulls.

The origin of the foundations of Greek society

Important changes took place in handicraft production, primarily in metallurgy and metalworking. It was then that iron began to be widely used. The development of this metal, the production process of which was simpler in comparison with bronze, had enormous consequences. The need for industrial cooperation of a number of families disappeared, and opportunities arose for the economic independence of the patriarchal family, the centralized production, storage and distribution of iron ceased to justify itself, the economic need for a bureaucratic apparatus, characteristic of all Achaean states, disappeared.

The leading figure in the Greek economy was the free farmer. A somewhat different situation developed in those areas where the Dorian conquerors conquered the local Achaean population, for example, in Sparta. The Dorians conquered the Eurotas valley and made the local population dependent on them.

The main form of organization of society was the policy as a special form of the community. The citizens of the policy were the heads of the patriarchal families that were part of it. Each family represented an economically independent unit, which also determined their political equality. And although the emerging nobility sought to bring the community under their control, this process was still far from complete. The polis-community performed two important functions:

• protection of land and population from the claims of neighbors
• regulation of intra-communal relations.

Only such policies as Sparta, where there was a conquered population, in this era acquired the features of primitive state formations.

Thus, by the end of the period under review, Greece was a world of hundreds of small and tiny city-states-communities that united peasant farmers. It was a world where the main economic unit was the patriarchal family, economically self-sufficient and almost independent, with a simple way of life, the absence of external ties, a world where the top of society had not yet sharply separated from the bulk of the population, where the exploitation of man by man was just emerging. At primitive forms social organization did not yet have the forces capable of compelling the bulk of the producers to give away the surplus product. But this was precisely the economic potential of Greek society, which revealed itself in the next historical epoch and ensured its rapid rise.

Archaic Greece

The archaic period in the history of Greece is usually called the VIII-VI centuries. BC. According to some researchers, this is the time of the most intensive development of ancient society. Indeed, over the course of three centuries, many important discoveries were made that determined the nature of the technical basis of ancient society, those socio-economic and political phenomena developed that gave ancient society a certain specificity in comparison with other slave-owning societies:

• classical slavery;
• system of money circulation and market;
• the main form of political organization is the policy;
• the concept of the sovereignty of the people and the democratic form of government.

At the same time, the main ethical norms and principles of morality, aesthetic ideals were developed, which had an impact on the ancient world throughout its history until the emergence of Christianity. Finally, during this period, the main phenomena of ancient culture were born:

• philosophy and science,
• major genres of literature
• theatre,
• order architecture,
• sport.

In order to more clearly imagine the dynamics of the development of society in the archaic period, we give the following comparison:

The dissolution of old traditional relationships and the emergence of new ones

The rapid rise prepared by the previous development, the spread of iron tools had manifold consequences for society. The increase in labor productivity in agriculture and handicrafts led to an increase in surplus product. An increasing number of people were released from the agricultural sector, which ensured the rapid growth of the craft. The separation of the agricultural and handicraft sectors of the economy led to a regular exchange between them, the emergence of a market and a universal equivalent - minted coins. A new type of wealth - money - begins to compete with the old - landed property, disintegrating traditional relationships.

As a result, there is a rapid decomposition of primitive communal relations and the emergence of new forms of socio-economic and political organization of society. This process proceeds in different ways in different parts of Hellas, but everywhere it entails the brewing of social conflicts between the emerging aristocracy and the ordinary population, primarily communal peasants, and then other strata.

The formation of the Greek aristocracy by modern researchers usually refers to the VIII century. BC e. The aristocracy of that time is a limited group of people, which is characterized by a special lifestyle and system of values ​​that are mandatory for its members. She occupied a dominant position in the sphere of public life, especially in the administration of justice, played a leading role in the war, since only noble warriors had heavy weapons, and therefore the battles were essentially duels of aristocrats. The aristocracy sought to completely put under its control the rank and file members of society, to turn them into an exploited mass. According to modern researchers, the attack of the aristocracy on ordinary fellow citizens began in the VIII century. BC e. Little is known about the details of this process, but its main results can be judged from the example of Athens, where the growing influence of the aristocracy led to the creation of a clearly defined estate structure, to a gradual reduction in the stratum of the free peasantry and an increase in the number of dependents.

"Great Greek Colonization"

Closely connected with this situation is such a phenomenon of great historical significance as the “great Greek colonization”. From the middle of the 8th c. BC e. Greeks were forced to leave their homeland and move to other countries.

For three centuries they created many colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Colonization developed in three main directions:

• western (Sicily, southern Italy, southern France and even the east coast of Spain),
• northern (Thracian coast of the Aegean Sea, the region of the straits leading from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, and its coast),
• southeast (the coast of North Africa and the Levant).

Modern researchers believe that its main incentive was the lack of land. Greece suffered both from absolute agrarian overpopulation (increase in population due to the general economic recovery) and from relative (lack of land among the poorest peasants due to the concentration of land ownership in the hands of the nobility). The reasons for colonization also include political struggle, which usually reflected the main social contradiction of the era - the struggle for land, as a result of which those defeated in the civil war were often forced to leave their homeland and move overseas. Trade motives also took place: the desire of the Greeks to control trade routes.

Moskhofor ("carrying a calf"). Acropolis. Athens. Around 570 BC

The pioneers of Greek colonization were the cities of Chalkis and Eretria located on the island of Euboea - in the 8th century. BC, apparently, the most advanced cities of Greece, the most important centers of metallurgical production. Later, Corinth, Megara, Asia Minor cities, especially Miletus, joined the colonization.

Colonization had a huge impact on the development of ancient Greek society, especially in the economic sphere. The impossibility of establishing the necessary craft industries in the new place led to the fact that very soon the colonies established the closest economic ties with the old centers of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. From here both the colonies and the local population neighboring them began to receive Greek handicrafts, especially artistic ones, as well as some types of agricultural products (the best varieties of wines, olive oil, etc.). In return, the colonies supplied Greece with grain and other foodstuffs, as well as raw materials (wood, metal, etc.). As a result, the Greek craft received an impetus for further development, and agriculture began to acquire a commercial character. Thus, colonization muted the social conflicts in Greece, bringing the mass of the landless population out of its borders and at the same time contributing to the change in the social and economic structure of Greek society.

Change in the socio-political situation

The attack of the aristocracy on the rights of the demos reached its climax in the 7th century. BC, causing retaliatory resistance. In Greek society, a special social stratum of people appeared who amassed, most often through craft and trade, significant wealth, led an aristocratic lifestyle, but did not have the hereditary privileges of the nobility. “Money is held in high esteem by all. Wealth has mixed the breeds, ”the poet Theognid from Megara notes bitterly. This new layer greedily rushed to control, thereby becoming an ally of the peasants in the fight against the nobility. The first successes in this struggle were most often associated with the establishment of written laws that limited the arbitrariness of the aristocracy.

Resistance to the growing dominance of the nobility was facilitated by at least three circumstances. About 675-600 years. BC. thanks to technological progress, a kind of revolution in military affairs is taking place. Heavy armor becomes available to ordinary citizens, and the aristocracy loses its advantage in the military sphere. Due to the scarcity of the country's natural resources, the Greek aristocracy could not be compared with the aristocracy of the East. Due to the peculiarities of historical development in Iron Age Greece, there were no such economic institutions (similar to the temple farms of the East), relying on which it would be possible to exploit the peasantry. Even the peasants, who were dependent on the aristocrats, were not economically connected with the farms of the latter. All this predetermined the fragility of the rule of the nobility in society. Finally, the force that prevented the strengthening of the position of aristocrats was their ethics. It had an "atonal" (competitive) character: each aristocrat, in accordance with the ethical norms inherent in this layer, strove to be the first everywhere - on the battlefield, in sports, in politics. This system of values ​​was created by the nobility earlier and transferred to a new historical period, when, in order to ensure domination, it needed the rallying of all forces. However, the aristocracy could not achieve this.

Rise of tyranny

Aggravation of social conflicts in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. led to the birth of tyranny in many Greek cities, i.e. sole power of the ruler.

At that time, the concept of "tyranny" did not yet have the negative connotation inherent in it today. The tyrants pursued an active foreign policy, created powerful armed forces, decorated and improved their cities. However, the early tyranny as a regime could not last long. The historical doom of tyranny was explained by its internal inconsistency. The overthrow of the rule of the nobility and the struggle against it were impossible without the support of the masses. The peasantry, which benefited from this policy, initially supported the tyrants, but as the threat posed by the aristocracy weakened, they gradually came to realize the uselessness of the tyrannical regime.

Tyranny was not a stage characteristic of the life of all policies. It was most typical for those cities that had become large trade and craft centers back in the archaic era. The process of the formation of the classical polis, due to the relative abundance of sources, is best known to us from the example of Athens.

Athens variant

The history of Athens in the archaic era is the history of the formation of a democratic polis. The monopoly on political power in the period under review belonged here to the nobility - Eupatrides, who gradually turned ordinary citizens into a dependent mass. This process is already in the VII century. BC. led to outbreaks of social conflict.

Fundamental changes occur at the beginning of the VI century. BC, and they are associated with the reforms of Solon. The most important of these was the so-called sisachfiya ("shaking off the burden"). As a result of this reform, the peasants, who had essentially become sharecroppers of their own land because of their debts, regained their status as owners. At the same time, it was forbidden to enslave the Athenians for debts. Of great importance were the reforms that undermined the political dominance of the nobility. From now on, the scope of political rights depended not on the nobility, but on the size of the property (all citizens of the policy were divided into four property categories). In accordance with this division, the military organization of Athens was also rebuilt. A new governing body was created - the council (bule), the importance of the people's assembly increased.

Solon's reforms, despite their radical nature, by no means solved all the problems. The aggravation of the social struggle in Athens led in 560 BC. to the establishment of the tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons, which lasted here intermittently until 510 BC. Peisistrat pursued an active foreign policy, strengthening the position of Athens on the sea trade routes. Crafts flourished in the city, trade developed, and large-scale construction was carried out. Athens turned into one of the largest economic centers of Hellas. Under the successors of Pisistratus, this regime fell, which again caused an aggravation of social contradictions. Shortly after 509 BC. e. under the leadership of Cleisthenes, a new series of reforms is being carried out that finally approved the democratic system. The most important of them is the reform of the suffrage: henceforth, all citizens, regardless of their property status, had equal political rights. The system of territorial division was changed, destroying the influence of aristocrats in the field.

Sparta variant

Sparta gives a different development option. Having captured Lakonika and enslaved the local population, the Doryans already in the 9th century. BC. created a state in Sparta. Born very early as a result of the conquest, it retained many primitive features in its structure. In the future, the Spartans, during two wars, sought to conquer Messenia, a region in the west of the Peloponnese. The internal social conflict between the nobility and ordinary citizenship, which was already brewing earlier, broke out in Sparta during the Second Messenian War. In its main features, it resembled the conflicts that existed around the same time in other parts of Greece. A long struggle between ordinary Spartans and the aristocracy led to the reorganization of Spartan society. A system is being created, which at a later time was called Likurgov, after the name of the legislator who allegedly established it. Of course, tradition simplifies the picture, because this system was not created immediately, but took shape gradually. Having overcome the internal crisis, Sparta was able to conquer Messenia and turned into the most powerful state of the Peloponnese and, perhaps, all of Greece.

All land in Laconica and Messenia was divided into equal plots - cleres, which each Spartiate received in temporary possession, after his death the land was returned to the state. The desire for complete equality of the Spartans was also served by other measures:

• a harsh system of education aimed at the formation of an ideal warrior;
• the strictest regulation of all aspects of the life of citizens - the Spartans lived as if they were in a military camp;
• the prohibition to engage in agriculture, crafts and trade, to use gold and silver;
• limiting contact with the outside world.

The political system was also reformed. Along with the kings, who performed the functions of military leaders, judges and priests, the council of elders (gerousia) and the people's assembly (apella), a new governing body appeared - a college of five ephors (guards). The ephorate was the highest control body, which ensured that no one deviated a single step from the principles of the Spartan system, which became the pride of the Spartans, who believed that they had achieved the ideal of equality.

In historiography, there is traditionally a view of Sparta as a militarized, militaristic state, and some authoritative experts even call it a "police" state. There is some merit in this definition. The basis on which the "community of equals" was based, that is, the collective of equal and full-fledged Spartans, completely unemployed in productive labor, was the exploited mass of the enslaved population of Laconia and Messenia - the helots. Scientists have been arguing for many years about how to determine the position of this segment of the population. Many tend to regard helots as government slaves. Helots owned plots of land, tools, had economic independence, but they were obliged to transfer a certain share of the crop to their masters - the Spartans, ensuring their existence. According to modern researchers, this share was approximately 1/6-1/4 of the crop. Deprived of all political rights, the helots belonged entirely to the state, which disposed not only of their property, but also of their lives. The slightest protest from the helots was severely punished.

In the Spartan policy, there was another social group - the perieks ("living around"), the descendants of the Dorians who were not part of the citizens of Sparta. They lived in communities, had internal self-government under the supervision of Spartan officials, were engaged in agriculture, crafts and trade. Perieki were obliged to put up military contingents. Similar social conditions and close to the Spartan system are known in Crete, in Argos, Thessaly and other areas.

Culture of the archaic era

ethnic identity

Like all other spheres of life, Greek culture in the archaic era experienced rapid changes. In these centuries, the development of ethnic identity took place, the Greeks gradually began to realize themselves as a single people, different from other peoples, whom they began to call barbarians. Ethnic self-consciousness found its manifestation in some social institutions. According to Greek tradition, starting from 776 BC. The Olympic Games began to be arranged, to which only Greeks were allowed.

Ethics

In the era of the archaic, the main features of the ethics of ancient Greek society take shape. Its distinctive feature was the combination of the emerging sense of collectivism and the agonistic (competitive) beginning. The formation of the polis as a special type of community, which replaced the loose associations of the "heroic" era, gave rise to a new, polis morality - collectivist in its essence, since the existence of an individual outside the polis was impossible. The development of this morality was also facilitated by the military organization of the policy (the formation of the phalanx). The highest valor of a citizen was to protect his policy: “It is sweet to lose life, among the warriors of the valiant fallen, to a brave husband in battle for the sake of his fatherland” - these words of the Spartan poet Tirteus perfectly expressed the mindset of the new era, characterizing the system of values ​​that prevailed then. However, the new morality retained the principles of Homeric morality with its leading principle of competitiveness. The nature of the political reforms in the policies determined the preservation of this morality, since it was not the aristocracy who was deprived of their rights, but ordinary citizenship was raised in terms of the scope of political rights to the level of the aristocracy. Because of this, the traditional ethics of the aristocracy spread among the masses, although in a modified form: the most important principle is who will serve the policy better.

Religion

Religion also experienced a certain transformation. The formation of a single Greek world with all local features led to the creation of a common pantheon for all Greeks. Evidence of this is Hesiod's poem "Theogony". The cosmogonic ideas of the Greeks did not fundamentally differ from the ideas of many other peoples. It was believed that Chaos, Earth (Gaia), underworld(Tartarus) and Eros - the life principle. Gaia gave birth to the starry sky - Uranus, which became the first ruler of the world and the spouse of Gaia. From Uranus and Gaia, the second generation of gods was born - the titans. Titan Kronos (god of agriculture) overthrew the power of Uranus. In turn, the children of Kronos - Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter and Hera - under the leadership of Zeus overthrew Kronos and seized power over the universe. Thus, the Olympian gods are the third generation of deities. Zeus became the supreme deity - the ruler of the sky, thunder and lightning. Poseidon was considered the god of moisture, irrigating the earth and seas, Hades (Pluto) - the lord of the underworld. The wife of Zeus Hera was the patroness of marriage, Hestia was the goddess of the hearth. As the patroness of agriculture, Demeter was revered, whose daughter Cora, once abducted by Hades, became his wife.

From the marriage of Zeus and Hera, Hebe was born - the goddess of youth, Ares - the god of war, Hephaestus, who personified volcanic fire hidden in the bowels of the earth, and also patronized artisans, especially blacksmiths. Among the descendants of Zeus, Apollo stood out - the god of the bright beginning in nature, often called Phoebus (Shining). According to myths, he defeated the dragon Python, and at the place where he performed his feat, and it was in Delphi, the Greeks erected a temple in honor of Apollo. This god was considered the patron of the arts, a healer god, but at the same time a deity that brings death, spreading epidemics; he later became the patron saint of colonization. The role of Apollo increases over time, and he begins to displace Zeus.

Apollo's sister Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and the patroness of youth. The many-sided functions of Hermes, originally the god of material wealth, then trade, the patron of deceivers and thieves, and finally, the patron of speakers and athletes; Hermes also led the souls of the dead to the underworld. Dionysus (or Bacchus) was revered as a deity of the productive forces of nature, viticulture and winemaking. Athena, who was born from the head of Zeus, enjoyed great honor - the goddess of wisdom, of any rational principle, but also of war (unlike Ares, who personified reckless courage). The constant companion of Athena is the goddess of victory, Nike, the symbol of Athena's wisdom is the owl. Aphrodite, born from sea foam, was worshiped as the goddess of love and beauty.

For the Greek religious consciousness, especially at this stage of development, the idea of ​​the omnipotence of a deity is not characteristic; an impersonal force reigned over the world of the Olympic gods - Fate (Ananka). because of political fragmentation and the absence of the priestly class among the Greeks did not develop a single religion, a large number of very close but not identical religious systems. As the polis worldview developed, ideas about the special connection of individual deities with one or another policy, the patrons of which they acted, took shape. Thus, the goddess Athena is especially closely associated with the city of Athens, Hera with Samos and Argos, Apollo and Artemis with Delos, Apollo with Delphi, Zeus with Olympia, etc.

The Greek worldview is characterized not only by polytheism, but also by the idea of ​​the universal animation of nature. Every natural phenomenon, every river, mountain, grove had its own deity. From the point of view of the Greek, there was no insurmountable line between the world of people and the world of gods, heroes acted as an intermediate link between them. Heroes such as Hercules, for their exploits, joined the world of the gods. The gods of the Greeks themselves were anthropomorphic, they experienced human passions and could suffer like people.

Architecture

The archaic era is the time of the formation of architecture. The primacy of public, primarily sacred, architecture is indisputable. The dwellings of that time are simple and primitive, all the forces of society are turned to monumental structures, primarily temples. Among them, the temples of the gods - the patrons of the community - excelled. The emerging sense of unity of the civil collective found its expression in the creation of such temples, which were considered the dwelling place of the gods. Early temples repeated the structure of the megaron of the 2nd millennium BC. A temple of a new type was born in Sparta, the ancient city of Hellas. A characteristic feature of Greek architecture is the use of orders, that is, a special construction system that emphasizes the architectonics of the building, gives expressiveness to the bearing and carried structural elements, revealing their function. The order building usually has a stepped base; a number of bearing vertical supports were placed on it - columns that supported the carried parts - an entablature that reflected the design of the beam ceiling and roof. Initially, temples were built on acropolises - fortified hills, ancient centers of settlements. Later, in connection with the general democratization of society, changes occur in the location of the temples. They are now erected in the lower city, most often on the agora - the main square, the former center of public and business life of the policy.

The role of temples in Greek society

The temple as an institution contributed to the development of various art forms. The custom of bringing gifts to the temple was established early on; part of the booty captured from enemies, weapons, offerings on the occasion of deliverance from danger, etc. were sacrificed to it. A significant part of these gifts were works of art. An important role was played by temples that gained all-Greek popularity, primarily the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The rivalry, first of noble families, and then of policies, contributed to the fact that the best works of art were concentrated here, and the territory of the sanctuary became something like a museum.

Sculpture

Black-figure amphora. 540s BC.

In the archaic era, monumental sculpture appears - an art form previously unknown to Greece. The earliest sculptures were roughly carved in wood, often inlaid with ivory and covered with sheets of bronze. Improvements in the technique of stone processing not only affected architecture, but also led to the emergence of stone sculpture, and in the technique of metal processing - to the casting of sculpture from bronze. In the VII-VI centuries. BC. sculpture is dominated by two types: a naked male figure and a draped female figure. The birth of the statuary type of the naked figure of a man is associated with the main trends in the development of society. The statue depicts a beautiful and valiant citizen, a winner in sports competitions, who glorified his native city. According to the same type, tomb statues and images of deities began to be made. The appearance of the relief is mainly associated with the custom of erecting tombstones. Subsequently, reliefs in the form of complex multi-figure compositions became an indispensable part of the temple's entablature. Statues and reliefs were usually painted.

vase painting

Greek monumental painting is much less well known than vase painting. On the example of the latter, the main trends in the development of art are best traced: the emergence of realistic principles, the interaction of local art and influences that came from the East. In the 7th - early 6th century. BC. dominated by Corinthian and Rhodes vases with colorful paintings of the so-called carpet style. They usually depicted a floral ornament and various animals and fantastic creatures arranged in a row. In the VI century. BC. vase painting is dominated by the black-figure style: figures painted over with black lacquer stand out sharply against the reddish background of clay. Paintings on black-figure vases often consisted of multi-figured compositions based on mythological subjects: various episodes from the life of the Olympian gods, the exploits of Hercules and the Trojan War were popular. Less often there were scenes related to the daily life of people: the battle of hoplites, competitions of athletes, scenes of a feast, a round dance of girls, etc.

Since individual images were executed in the form of black silhouettes against a background of clay, they give the impression of being flat. Vases made in different cities have only their characteristic features. The black-figure style reached its peak in Athens. Attic black-figure vases were distinguished by the elegance of forms, high technique of manufacture, and variety of subjects. Some vase painters signed their paintings, and thanks to this we know, for example, the name of Clytius, who painted a magnificent vessel for wine (crater): the painting consists of several belts, on which multi-figure compositions are presented. Another magnificent example of painting is Exekia's kylix. The vase painter occupied the entire round surface of the wine bowl with one scene: the god Dionysus reclining on a ship sailing under a white sail, vines twisting near the mast, heavy clusters hanging down. Seven dolphins dive around, into which, according to myth, Dionysus turned the Tyrrhenian pirates.

Alphabetical writing and philosophy

The greatest achievement of the Greek culture of the archaic era was the creation of alphabetic writing. By transforming the Phoenician syllabic system, the Greeks created a simple way to record information. In order to learn how to write and count, years of hard work were no longer needed, there was a “democratization” of the education system, which made it possible to gradually make almost all free inhabitants of Greece literate. Thus, knowledge was “secularized”, which became one of the reasons for the absence of a priestly class in Greece and contributed to an increase in the spiritual potential of society as a whole.

A phenomenon of exceptional importance for European culture, the emergence of philosophy, is associated with the era of the archaic. Philosophy is a fundamentally new approach to the knowledge of the world, sharply different from that which prevailed in the Near East and in Greece of an earlier period. The transition from religious and mythological ideas about the world to its philosophical understanding meant a qualitative leap in the intellectual development of mankind. Statement and formulation of problems, reliance on the human mind as a means of cognition, orientation to the search for the causes of everything that happens in the world itself, and not outside it - this is what significantly distinguishes the philosophical approach to the world from religious and mythological views.

In modern scientific literature, there are two main views on the emergence of philosophy.

1. According to one, the birth of philosophy is a derivative of the development of science; the quantitative accumulation of positive knowledge resulted in a qualitative leap.
2. According to another explanation, early Greek philosophy practically did not differ in anything, except for the way of expression, from the stage-by-stage earlier mythological system of knowledge of the world.
3. However, in recent years, a view has been expressed that seems to be the most correct: philosophy was born from the social experience of a citizen of an early policy.

The polis and the relations of citizens in it - this is the model by analogy with which the Greek philosophers saw the world. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the emergence of philosophy in its earliest form - natural philosophy (i.e., philosophy, addressed primarily to the knowledge of the most general laws of the world) - occurs in the most advanced policies of Asia Minor. It is with them that the activities of the first philosophers - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes - are connected. The natural-philosophical teachings about the primary elements made it possible to build a general picture of the world and explain it without resorting to the help of the gods. The philosophy that was born was spontaneously materialistic, the main thing in the work of its first representatives was the search for the material fundamental principles of everything that exists.

The founder of Ionian natural philosophy, Thales, considered such a fundamental principle to be water, which is in constant motion. Its transformations created and create all things, which in turn turn back into water. Thales represented the earth as a flat disk floating on the surface of primary water. Thales was also considered the founder of mathematics, astronomy and a number of other specific sciences. Comparing records of consecutive solar eclipses, he predicted an eclipse of the sun in 597 (or 585) BC. and explained it by the fact that the moon obscured the sun. According to Anaximander, the fundamental principle of everything is apeiron, indefinite, eternal and boundless matter, which is in constant motion. Anaximander gave the first formulation of the law of conservation of energy and created the first geometric model of the universe.

The materialism and dialectics of the Ionian natural philosophers were opposed by the Pythagoreans, followers of the teachings of Pythagoras, who created a religious and mystical community in southern Italy. The Pythagoreans considered mathematics to be the basis of the foundations, believing that not quality, but quantity, not substance, but form determine the essence of everything. Gradually, they began to identify things with numbers, depriving them of their material content. The abstract number turned into an absolute was conceived by them as the basis of the non-material essence of the world.

Literature

At the beginning of the archaic era, the dominant genre of literature was the epic, inherited from the previous era. The fixation of Homer's poems, carried out in Athens under Peisistratus, marked the end of the "epic" period. The epic, as a reflection of the experience of the whole society in the new conditions, had to give way to other types of literature. In this era, filled with violent social conflicts, lyrical genres are developing that reflect the experiences of the individual. Civicism distinguishes the poetry of Tyrtaeus, who inspired the Spartans in their struggle for the possession of Messenia. In his elegies, Tyrtaeus praised military prowess and expounded the norms of warrior behavior. And in later times they were sung during campaigns, they were also popular outside Sparta as a hymn to polis patriotism. The work of Theognid - an aristocratic poet who realized the death of the aristocratic system and suffered from it - is permeated with hatred for the lower classes and a thirst for revenge:

Firmly trample on the empty-hearted people, mercilessly
I’ll sharpen with a sharp stick, press down with a heavy yoke!

A life full of adversity and suffering was lived by one of the first lyric poets - Archilochus. The son of an aristocrat and a slave, Archilochus, driven by need, went from his native Paros together with the colonists to Thasos, fought with the Thracians, served as a mercenary, visited “beautiful and happy” Italy, but found happiness nowhere:

I have my bread mixed in a sharp spear. And in the spear -
Wine from Ismar. I drink, leaning on a spear.

The work of another great lyricist - Alkey - reflected the turbulent political life of that time. Along with political motives, his poems also contain drinking ones, they sound the joy of life and the sadness of love, reflections on the inevitability of death and calls to friends to rejoice in life:

The rains are raging. Great cold
Carries from the sky. The rivers are all chained ...
Let's drive away the winter. blazing bright
Let's spread the fire. Generously sweet to me
Pour some wine. Then under the cheek
Give me a soft pillow.

“Sappho is violet-haired, pure, with a gentle smile!” - the poet addresses his great contemporary Sappho.

At the center of Sappho's work was a woman suffering from love and tormented by the pangs of jealousy, or a mother who tenderly loves her children. Sad motifs predominate in Sappho's poetry, which gives it a peculiar charm:

God equal seems to me fortunately
The person who is so close
Before you sits, your sounding gentle
listens to the voice
And a lovely laugh. At the same time I have
The heart would immediately stop beating.

Anacreon called his work the poetry of beauty, love and fun. He did not think about politics, wars, civil strife:

Sweet to me is not the one who, feasting, at a full cup of speech
He only talks about litigation and about a regrettable war;
Dear me, who, Muses and Cyprites, combining good gifts,
The rule sets itself to be more cheerful at the feast.

The poems of Anacreon, marked by an indisputable talent and enchanting in their form, had a huge impact on European, including Russian, poetry.

By the end of the archaic era, the birth of artistic prose, represented by the works of logographers, who collected local legends, genealogies of noble families, and stories about the founding of policies, dates back to the end of the archaic era. At the same time, theatrical art arose, the roots of which lie in the folk rites of agricultural cults.

Archaic- early development of art. Translated from the Greek "archaikus" - ancient, ancient. art can be anything ancient art, beginning with rock paintings, however, most often this term refers to the art of ancient Greece.

Archaic period of Greece from 650 to 480 BC e. - this is an unusual flowering of science, culture and art, which became the basis of all world art. Many, however, criticize the name of Greek culture as "archaic", since this term hides precisely a certain primitiveness, while the "archaic period" of Greece is high art and a developed culture that is quite comparable to modern.

The archaic period of Greece contributed to the emergence of many types of fine and applied arts. The cultural surge of this time is comparable to the Renaissance in Europe, which also contributed to the emergence of many genres, trends, turned the world around and made life much more interesting and richer. Archaic is the period of formation, the period of birth and the beginning of prosperity. There was a marked shift in the visual arts, ceramics, sculpture and architecture. Doric and Ionic architectural styles emerged. To decorate houses, palaces, temples, tombstones, sculptures from various materials are being created, which today are considered real masterpieces of archaic art. In addition, Ancient Greece became famous for its writers, poets, philosophers, whose work is also considered literary archaic, that is, the period of the origin of the foundations.

Archaic, as an early stage in the development of culture and art, plays the most important role in the history of mankind. It is thanks to those figures who laid the foundations and proved their necessity to all people, today we have our world heritage - hundreds of styles and genres of painting, graphics, literature, sculpture, architecture, music, philosophy, creative activities and much, much more.

Examples of archaic art

The era of the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. - this is the time of the most intensive development of ancient Greek civilization. During this period, changes in all areas of life ancient Greece– from economics to culture – were so vast and radical that their totality is often called archaic revolution. The whole face of Greek society is changing. If by the beginning of the archaic era it was a traditional, almost non-progressive, immobile, rather simple society in its structure, then by the end of this era one can rightfully speak of a society in the highest degree mobile, complex, in a short period of time, by historical standards, caught up, and in a number of respects even outstripped the countries in its development ancient east. On Greek soil, the foundations of statehood are once again taking shape. But new state formations take the form of not palace kingdoms, as in the Mycenaean era, but apolises (states of the ancient type in the form of a civil community), which later determined the specifics of the entire ancient Greek civilization.

As a result of a number of reasons (far from all of them are completely clear to scientists), in Greece, already in the first centuries of the archaic era, the population increased sharply (this is recorded by archaeological data, in particular, by quantitative analysis of burials). There was a real population explosion: for some century the population of Hellas has increased several times. There is no doubt that a significant increase in population was the result of processes that began in the previous, prepolis period. Due to the absence of an external threat during this period, the gradual but steady growth of prosperity as a result of the introduction of iron products into all spheres of life, the Greek world was granted several centuries of stable life.

It should be noted that population growth was observed in a region poor in natural resources, including fertile soils. As a result, in some areas of Greece, a phenomenon such as stenochoria arose (i.e., "agrarian" overpopulation, leading to "land hunger"). The most acute stenochoria manifested itself on the Isthmus (the isthmus connecting the Peloponnese with Central Greece) and in the areas adjacent to it, as well as on some islands of the Aegean Sea (especially on Euboea), in Asia Minor Ionia. In these densely populated areas, the size of the khora (i.e., agricultural land) was negligible. To a lesser extent, angina was felt in Attica. In Boeotia, Thessaly, in the south of the Peloponnese, due to large areas of cultivated land and high (by Greek standards) soil fertility, the population explosion did not lead to negative consequences. It is characteristic that in these areas the rates of economic and political transformation were, as a rule, lower: need is a powerful engine of progress.

An extremely important process that largely determined the development of archaic Greece was urbanization - urban planning, the formation of an urban lifestyle. From now on and until the end of the existence of ancient civilization, one of its most specific features was precisely its urban character. To some extent, the Greeks themselves were already aware of this, for whom the word “polis” (in the meaning of “city”) became one of the key features of their entire existence, and the small

states with a city as the center are called policies.

If by the beginning of the archaic era in the Greek world there were almost no centers of urban life, then by its end Greece had truly turned into a “country of cities”, many of which (Athens, Corinth, Thebes, Argos, Miletus, Ephesus, etc.) became the largest economic , political and cultural centers. Cities could form different ways. One of the most common was the so-called Sinoikism (literally, "settlement") - the merger into one political unit of several small rural-type settlements located close to each other, on the territory of one region. This process could be accompanied by a real resettlement of the inhabitants of several villages to one city. Thus, Sinoikism in Attica, which tradition ascribes to the legendary Athenian king Theseus (although this process took place in the first half of the 1st millennium BC and continued for several centuries), by no means led to the migration of the entire rural population to a single center. Even in the classical era, more than half of the Athenian citizens lived in the choir, in Athens itself there were only general government bodies.

The Greek city of the archaic period played the role of an administrative center for the territory surrounding it, or, more precisely, an administrative and religious center, since religion in antiquity was closely connected with state life. But at the same time, the city was also the most important economic center, the center of handicraft production and trade. Thus, it is necessary to note a certain duality of the functions of the ancient Greek city (however, this is typical for a city of any historical era). It was expressed in the presence of two centers in almost every city. One of them was the kropolis (otakros - upper +polis - city), which was a fortress. It was usually located on a hill or on a more or less impregnable rock and had a complex of defensive structures. The Acropolis was the heart of the city and the whole state; the main temples were located on it, the main religious cults were sent. On the acropolis, the buildings of the governing bodies of the policy were originally located. In addition, in the event of an attack by enemies, the acropolis served as a citadel, the last stronghold of the defenders.

The second "center" of the city was the agora, which most often appeared at the foot of the acropolis.

- the main city square, where the market was located and where people gathered for gatherings. The agora, like the acropolis, was considered a sacred space. Around the agora crowded the actual city quarters, which were inhabited by artisans, merchants (which, however, constituted a minority of the population), as well as peasants who daily went to work on their land plots located not far from the city.

Once having arisen, the city underwent a certain evolution during the archaic era. First of all, it is necessary to mention the gradual increase in the importance of the agora, the transfer of the main administrative functions to it from the acropolis, which eventually becomes almost exclusively a place for religious rituals. In various Greek cities, this process proceeded with varying degrees of intensity, correlating mainly with the pace of political development of one or another policy.

Bronze helmets (VI century BC)

The Acropolis also lost its defensive function, which was the result of another process characteristic of that time - an increase in the security of cities as a whole. The rapid development of military art urgently required the creation of a system of fortifications in cities that would cover not only the citadel of the acropolis, but the entire territory of the city. By the end of the archaic era, many cities, at least the largest and most prosperous, were surrounded by defensive walls along the entire perimeter.

However, not in all regions of the Greek world, urbanization has reached a high level of development. In areas such as Elis, Aetolia, Acarnania, Achaia, life in the cities remained at a rather primitive level for a long time. A special case was the largest center of the Southern Peloponnese - Sparta, which ancient authors called the non-Synoykized polis. Not only in the archaic era, but also in the future (up to the Hellenistic period), this policy did not have defensive walls at all. And in general, the appearance of Sparta was far from urban, since it was, in fact, a combination of several rural settlements.

Extremely important changes have taken place in military affairs. In the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. the martial arts of heroes-aristocrats described in Homer's poems have receded into the past. From now on, the collective principle became the main thing in the art of war, and detachments of hoplites - heavily armed infantrymen - began to play the most important role on the battlefields. Hoplite armor consisted of a bronze helmet, a shell (either entirely made of bronze or leather sheathed with bronze plates), bronze greaves that protected the warrior's shins, and a round shield made of several layers of bull skin on a wooden frame, usually upholstered with bronze plates. The hoplite was armed with a short (about 60 centimeters long) iron sword and a longer wooden spear with an iron tip. Hoplites had to acquire both armor and weapons at their own expense, therefore, in order to serve in this branch of the army, one had to be a wealthy person, a landowner citizen (initially, full hoplite weapons - panoplia - were generally available only to aristocrats).

Panoplia (hoplite armor from Argos) (VIII century BC)

In battle, the hoplites acted in a special close formation - the phalanx. The warriors stood shoulder to shoulder in several ranks in a rectangle strongly elongated along the front. The length of the Greek phalanx varied depending on the total size of the detachment and could reach one kilometer, the depth was usually 7-8 rows. Having lined up and prepared for battle, the hoplites covered themselves with shields, put their spears forward and moved towards the enemy, trying to strike as powerfully as possible. Like a living wall that swept away everything in its path, the phalanx remained for centuries the most perfect way to build troops. The strongest side of the phalanx was, perhaps, precisely its unstoppable onslaught; in addition, heavy armor protected the hoplite well, which made the number of casualties among the combatants minimal. This system also had disadvantages: poor maneuverability, vulnerability from the flanks, unsuitability for combat operations on rough terrain. Both hoplite weapons and the phalanx appeared at the turn of the 8th-7th centuries. BC e., most likely in Argos - one of the largest centers of the Peloponnese. In any case, it was in Argolis in one of the graves that archaeologists found the most ancient version of panoply. Naturally, from Argos, the new way of warfare spread very quickly throughout the Peloponnese, and then almost throughout the Greek world.

Trier. Picture

The poorest citizens, unable to acquire hoplite armor and weapons, during the war were auxiliary units of lightly armed warriors - hymnets. Among them

there were archers, slingers, clubmen, throwers of darts (short spears). Gymnets, as a rule, started the battle, and then ran off to the sides, making room for the clash of the main forces - the hoplite phalanxes. Gymnets were considered the least valuable part of the army, and sometimes policies even entered into agreements with each other that prohibited the use of bows, slings, etc. during military clashes.

The cavalry, recruited exclusively from representatives of the aristocracy, played a small role in the battles: the cavalrymen mainly had to protect the phalanx on the left and right in order to avoid its encirclement. More active actions of the cavalry were hindered, in particular, by the fact that the saddle with stirrups had not yet been invented, and therefore the position of the rider on the horse was very unstable. Only in some Greek regions (especially in Thessaly) did cavalry detachments occupy a truly significant place in the structure of the army.

Along with the art of war, maritime affairs developed. In the era of the archaic, the Greeks had warships of a combined sailing and rowing type. The earliest type of such ship was the pentecontera, which was a very large boat with a sail and about fifty oars, each of which was driven by an oarsman. In the VI century. BC e. the pentecontere was replaced by a priltriera - a ship with three rows of oars (up to 170 oars in total) on each side. According to ancient authors, triremes first began to build masters from Corinth. The sailing rigging on the trireme was extremely simple and rarely used, but basically the ship moved on oars, especially during sea ​​battle. At the same time, the ability to reach speeds of up to 10 knots, combined with high maneuverability, made the trireme a very effective weapon. Throughout the archaic and most of the classical era, she remained the most common type of warship.

The Greeks were considered the greatest seafarers in the world of that time; already in the archaic era, the pronounced "marine" orientation of their civilization was clearly defined. Along with the ships intended for warfare, the Greeks had merchant and transport ships. Merchant ships were shorter and wider than

penteconters and triremes, which had an elongated shape. The movement of such a vessel was carried out primarily with the help of sails. However, the sailing equipment of ancient Greek ships was still very simple. Therefore, excessive distance from the coast threatened such a vessel with almost certain death, as well as navigation in winter, in the season of storms. Nevertheless, progress in the development of maritime spaces was evident.

Of course, all innovations in the field of urban planning, in military and naval affairs would be impossible if they were not accompanied by the rapid development of the economy. True, in agriculture, which was the basis of the economic life of ancient Greece, these changes were felt weaker. Agricultural production was still based on the cultivation of crops of the so-called "Mediterranean triad" (cereals, grapes, olives), as well as on cattle breeding, which played mainly an auxiliary role.

Significant changes took place in the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. in handicraft production, already separated from agriculture.

Corinthian pottery (c. 600 BC)

Technological progress has touched many industrial sectors, such as shipbuilding, mining and metal processing. The Greeks began to build mines, discovered the welding and soldering of iron, developed new technologies for bronze casting, etc. All this contributed to the development of weapons. In the field of ceramic production, it should be noted the expansion of the range of vessels. Elegant and stylish decoration with the help of painting turned these utilitarian items into real works of art. In the most developed Greek cities, monumental stone buildings for religious and public purposes appeared: temples, altars, buildings for the work of government bodies, port facilities, water supply, etc.

Economic achievements would not have been possible without overcoming the isolation of the Greek communities characteristic of the Homeric period. Trade, including foreign trade, contributed to the restoration of ties with the ancient civilizations of the East. For example, in Al-Mina (on the Syrian coast) there was a Greek merchant trading post. In other words, Greece finally came out of isolation. However, the level of development of trade in

the archaic era should not be exaggerated. The marketability of the Greek economy, i.e. market orientation, was low. Foreign trade exchange was aimed primarily not at selling the products of ancient Greek policies, but, on the contrary, obtaining from other places what was missing on their own territory: raw materials, handicrafts and food, especially bread, which the Greeks always needed. The lack of sufficient natural resources in Greece led to the fact that the main component of foreign trade was imports.

Rhodes ceramics (7th century BC)

Trade, economic contacts entailed interaction in cultural sphere. The eastern influence on the Greek world, which intensified in the archaic era, gives some scientists reason to even talk about the oriental (i.e., oriented to the East) period of the development of civilization in Ancient Greece. Indeed, the alphabet came from Phoenicia to the Greek policies, from Egypt - the technology of making monumental statues, from Asia Minor - a coin. The Hellenes readily accepted all useful innovations from their more experienced eastern neighbors. However, they followed a completely new path of development unknown to Eastern civilizations.

Very an important factor The economic life of the Greek world was the emergence of money.

AT At the beginning of the archaic era in some areas of Hellas (especially in the Peloponnese), the role of money was played by iron and copper bars in the form of rods - oboli. Six obols made up a drachma (that is, a handful - such a number could be captured with one hand).

AT 7th century BC e. coinage appeared. It was invented in Lydia, a small rich kingdom in the west of Asia Minor. The Greeks adopted the innovation very quickly. At first, according to the model of the Lydians, the largest Greek cities of Asia Minor began to mint coins, and then coins entered circulation in Balkan Greece (primarily on Aegina). Both the Lydian and the first Greek coins were minted from electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, and therefore their denominations were quite high, and it is unlikely that these coins could be used in trade. Most likely, they served to carry out large settlements of the state (for example, to pay for services mercenaries). However, over time, small denominations of the coin appeared and it entered into active trade.

Athenian silver tetradrachm (5th century BC)

By the end of the archaic era, silver became the main material for minting coins. Only in the classical era did small change coins begin to be made of copper. Gold coins were minted in extremely rare cases. Characteristically, the new money retained the old names. Basic monetary unit and in most policies there was a drachma (6 obols). The weight of the Athenian silver drachma was approximately 4.36 grams. They also minted coins of intermediate denomination - between the drachma and the obol. There were also coins heavier than the drachma: the didrachma (2 drachmas), the very widespread tetradrachma (4 drachmas) and the extremely rare dekadrachma (10 drachmas). The largest measures of value were mina (100 drachmas) italant (60 min, i.e., about 26 kilograms of silver); There were no coins of such denomination, of course.

Some ancient Greek cities had their own monetary system based on the stater monetary unit (about 2 drachmas). Each policy, being an independent state, issued its own coin. The authorities certified its state status by placing a special image on the coin, which was a symbol, or emblem, of the policy. So, on the coins of Athens, the head of Athena and the owl, which is considered the sacred bird of the goddess, were depicted, on the coins of Aegina - a tortoise, on the coins of Boeotia - a shield, etc.

Sources The history of ancient Greece in the archaic era is evidenced by various

sources, the value of which, however, is not the same. The central place is occupied by written data contained in the works of ancient authors. Wherein greatest value represent monuments that were created during the archaic era itself, for these are testimonies of contemporaries, and sometimes even eyewitnesses of the events described.

Important information is given historical writings: after all, ancient historians set themselves the goal of telling about the events not only of their contemporary era, but also of an earlier time. As is known, historical literature first appeared in Greece precisely in the archaic era, in the second half of the 6th century. BC e. However, the works of the first logographers - writers who worked in the historical genre (Hecateus of Miletus, Charon of Lampsakus, Acusilaus of Argos, etc.) - unfortunately, have survived only in the form of a few and scattered fragments cited by "later" authors. Of course, some valuable information can be obtained from these fragments, but on the whole, the information in them is rather scarce and, in any case, does not allow us to recreate a complete picture of the development of Greece in the archaic era.

For any complete reconstruction of the history of this time, it is necessary to actively use written monuments of various genres, for example, the works of poets, who in Hellas VIII-VI centuries. BC e. there were many. We find very important material in Hesiod, the largest representative of the didactic

(instructive) epic. His poem "Works and Days" contains a description of the entire working life of a peasant with a kind of poetic code of economic instructions, cult prescriptions and moral rules life of a poor Greek of the early archaic era. The world of "rural Greece" rises from the pages of the poem in all its fullness and brilliance, and, it should be said, this world contrasts sharply with the world of Homer - with its militant heroes and almost constant battles.

The source of information is numismatic evidence. The very first coins of Greek policies make it possible to judge the nature of monetary circulation, the ways of interstate trade, systems of measures and weights, etc.

The next period to be discussed is archaic period(VIII - VI centuries BC), period archaic, this is the era of the formation of the Greek policy.

So what is a policy? There are many definitions of what a policy is, and they thought about it even in the era of antiquity. In particular, let's say, in the works of Aristotle, in his own “Politics”, a study of the definition of this unique phenomenon is given. That is, the Greeks themselves were already aware of the specificity and peculiarity of their social life. In modern science, two definitions of the most widely used are usually used.

The most elementary, most primitive definition, which is also found in a school textbook: a polis is a city-state. it good definition, it arose in German historical science in the 19th century, and in this definition the following is fair. The first thing that this definition indicates is that the presence of an urban center is very important for the policy. Here is Greek civilization, which from this moment, i.e. from the period archaic, will arise - this is a civilization, unlike the previous era, this is an urban civilization. This is an urban civilization. The city will be the center of all life: economic, cultural, political life, etc. You see, there were cities before, and in the east there were cities, but they fit into the structures of the existing despotic monarchies, first of all, as administrative centers, as fortifications, etc., but here for the first time a city will arise, first of all, as a political and economic center. It is very important.

Here is modern urban civilization, western civilization, it is mostly urban, to some extent it originates from there. Although it is difficult to trace the direct succession. Next year, I hope, when I tell you about the Middle Ages, we will talk about medieval cities. They are to some extent the heirs of antiquity, but to a large extent they will arise on the basis of their own reasons and develop according to their own laws. Here modern cities are tightly connected with the medieval cities of Western Europe. But, I repeat, the city as such will appear in our country in antiquity.

The second important thing in this definition is the city-state. This definition emphasizes a very interesting feature, which is especially interesting for us. The fact that all Greek states, and a polis is a state, the same word denotes a city, is also a polis, because in principle it characterizes the fact that all Greek states were very small. But this is a very important point.

You see, of course, it's good to live in a big, powerful state, all peoples somehow strive to be big. Here it was good for us to be 1/6 of the land. Now we are 1/8 of the land, which is also not bad. The Chinese, say, empire, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, all such colossal political formations. So here are the Greek policies, and today we will talk about archaic period, in particular, we will talk about one of the most striking achievements of Greek civilization - namely, democracy. So I want to immediately determine that many of the phenomena that make antiquity so bright and impressive were possible only because this culture, this civilization developed in small political organisms.