2. Is There Physical Evidence of the Crime If millions of Jews were in fact murdered in the gas chambers, it is to be expected that there will be plenty of evidence confirming these unprecedented atrocities - genuine gas chambers, or at least drawings of these

Ancient Greece occupies a unique place in human history. It was here, in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, in close contact with the most ancient civilizations of the East, that arose several thousand years ago. European civilization. Ancient Greece is characterized by an unprecedentedly high development of all aspects of the existence of society - social, economic, political and cultural life. And these amazing achievements of the ancient world largely determined the course of the entire history of mankind.

The term "antiquity" (lat. antiquus- ancient) means not just distant antiquity, but a special era in the development of the Greco-Roman world. Greeks and Romans belonged to the same South European, Mediterranean race, to the same Indo-European language family. They were characterized by historical closeness. They created similar public institutions, had close cultural traditions and left largely similar monuments of material and spiritual culture. But, of course, all this did not exclude the difference in the ways and forms of the concrete historical development of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Thus, the history of ancient Greece is the first stage in the history of ancient civilization.

Ancient civilization arose in ancient Greece, where it reached its peak. Then the achievements of Greece continued to develop Ancient Rome, and with the fall of the Roman Empire, ancient civilization also completed its development.

The main phenomenon that distinguished the civilization of the ancient world from other ancient civilizations is the emergence urban civic community as the main socio-economic, political and socio-cultural structure. In antique

Greece, the state that existed within the framework of the civil community was called policy. The polis type of state was distinguished by a number of features. The most important of these was the emergence of the concept "citizen". He was a free, independent member of society, who enjoyed the fullness of civil and political rights, which were considered inseparable from his duties. The state-polis, represented by the civil collective, guaranteed the observance of all political rights and freedoms, as well as the socio-economic and spiritual conditions for the worthy existence of each of its members.

The system of values ​​in the civil collective had a humanistic orientation. The interests of the community, the civil collective, were put forward in the first place. This meant that the collective, public good prevailed over the individual, private. But at the same time, during the heyday of ancient civilization, the citizen had all the conditions for the comprehensive development of his personality, the manifestation of all abilities. This ensured a harmonious and indissoluble bond between the individual and the team.

It was the citizen of the polis, who simultaneously acted as a small free producer (primarily a peasant - owner and worker), as the bearer of the highest state power and as a warrior, defender of polis institutions and values, was the personification and bearer of ancient civilization.

But in addition to full-fledged citizens who were forbidden to be enslaved, in the ancient policy there was also an antipode of a free citizen - standing outside the civil collective forced laborers. Ancient society gave rise to the most complete and developed form of dependence and coercion of foreigners - classic slavery. The slave was not recognized as a person, but was considered a speaking “tool of labor”. But it was thanks to the use of slave labor that many achievements of ancient civilization became possible.

Thus, ancient civilization is a polis civilization. All the ups and downs of this unique civilization of the Ancient World are connected with the history of the policy and its civil collective.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF ANCIENT GREECE

The achievements of ancient society formed the basis of modern European civilization and largely predetermined the path of its development. Polis civilization has developed many institutions and categories that have become fundamental for modern society.

Among the achievements of the polis civilization in the political sphere, the central place is occupied by the concept "citizen", implying the existence of inalienable rights and obligations of each full member of the policy. Directly related to the concept of the status of a citizen is the concept freedom as the highest personal value, including political freedom, personifying the conditions for the full existence of a citizen. It was in ancient Greece that the first experience was successfully implemented democratic republican system. Ancient democracy, which ensured the broadest and most direct participation of citizens in government, still remains an unattainable ideal for modern democracy.

The contribution of ancient society to world culture. The culture of Greco-Roman antiquity is rightfully called classical, because it became a model for the subsequent cultural development of mankind. It is no exaggeration to say that there is not a single sphere of culture that has not been influenced by the fruitful ideas of the ancient Greeks. Antique culture has left us a legacy of values ​​characterized by high civic consciousness and humanism. And these spiritual values, focused on the daily norm of behavior, were expressed in the monuments of a perfect artistic form.

Confessing a pagan religion, the ancient Greeks expressed their figurative vision of the picture of the world in a bright mythology. Greek myths have become an inexhaustible source of inspiration for writers, sculptors and artists of all times.

The Greeks "gave" mankind and science as a separate and independent sphere of spiritual creativity. Moreover, in each of the branches of knowledge: philosophy, history, astronomy, geometry, medicine, etc. - they laid the foundations for the scientific study of the world.

The Greeks created the majority literary genres, became the founders theatre, and the principles they developed order architecture were widely used in the architectural styles of subsequent eras. The achievements of ancient civilization underlie the entire European culture, and without recourse to the great heritage of the past, the full development of modern society is impossible.

FEATURES OF THE CIVILIZATIONAL APPROACH TO STUDYING THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREECE

The history of Ancient Greece has been studied for a long period, and during this time, historical science has developed various research approaches. Nowadays, the civilizational approach to the study of antiquity should be recognized as the most fruitful. Civilization is understood as a historically conditioned specific form of existence of a large-scale society that has passed its historical path: the birth, development, flourishing and death. On this historical path, socio-economic, political and cultural systems, inherent only to this society, with their basic values ​​and principles of life order, were created. All these elements gave rise to many features that predetermined the specifics of this civilization, its difference from others.

Central to every civilization is Human, which acts as its bearer. A person is not only a part of the system of socio-economic ties determined by his production and estate-class position, but also cultural and historical type, carrying a picture of the world with the basic values ​​and guidelines inherent in this civilization, which form the motivation of human behavior. Thus, with a civilizational approach, ancient Greek history, where possible, is revealed through the knowledge of a person of that era. At the same time, the past is known through the objectification of the subject, i.e., through the disclosure of the inner “I” of a person in all the variety of his activities (labor, social, political, ideological, everyday life) and public relations.

The civilizational approach to the study of the past makes it possible to make society the central object of historical research, to consider it as a comprehensive macrosystem. Thanks to this, it becomes possible not only to highlight the global aspects of historical processes, not only to consider the relations of large social strata and groups, but also to study the features of their daily activities and the motivation of actions depending on the spiritual values ​​prevailing in society. Thus, the civilizational approach to history focuses on the knowledge of man in history, as well as the society he created.

Ancient civilization has a number of features, thanks to which the connection between the processes of historical development and the daily life of society can be seen very clearly. The main of these features is the extreme closeness of the state-political, economic and personal, everyday spheres. In the ancient world, their interpenetration was so natural and deep that sometimes it is impossible to separate these spheres. The personal human principle in the life of ancient society is especially clearly and peculiarly manifested in the role played in it by various micro-collectives, for example, such as military contingents, all kinds of collegiums and associations, communities and commonwealths.

Tendency to close Everyday life into cramped, habitable social worlds, typical of most early societies. In ancient Greece, these were phratries, local communities, religious communities. According to the principle of a contact group, welded together by specific interpersonal relationships and the interdependence of its members, fighting squads of basilean kings and leaders were formed to defend the settlements of archaic Greece. And in later times, communities of supporters of this or that political figure continued to play a significant role in the life of policies, supporting their leader in the national assembly (sometimes even terrorizing his opponents). The history of ancient Greece is characterized by the closeness of the political, economic and everyday spheres, the increased role of the individual in politics, and the micro-collective in public life.

When studying society and its historical past, general patterns become clearer if they are considered in close connection with their real subject - a person, through his daily activities, interpersonal relationships: family-kinship, patronage, friendship, etc. At the same time, the leading place in history, they occupy the main social structures of ancient society - the family and the community, within which both social ties and personal relationships of a person are realized. This allows us to trace the main processes of development of the ancient society, not only in the traditional socio-economic and political aspects, but also in their everyday manifestations.

One of the most important aspects of the life of any society is spiritual culture, generated by the all-round activity of the members of this society. The basis of the spiritual sphere of the people is the totality of their ideas about the world around them, about the place in this world of both the whole society and each individual. A person's perception of the world is conditioned by the natural and social environment of his habitat, the historical roots of a person, as well as traditions dating back to the time of the formation of his worldview. This set of ideas and beliefs based on them ultimately forms the ethical norms and spiritual values ​​of the people. Thus, the main function of the spiritual sphere is to strengthen the unity of society and ensure the preservation of its identity.

With a civilizational approach to history, much attention is paid to state as a central element of the political structure of society. In ancient civilization, the state had many features that distinguished it from the political structures that existed in subsequent eras. Without denying the essence of the state as an instrument of political domination of the ruling social group However, due attention should be paid to those of its features that come to the fore in the minds of people of every era: the state as the personification of justice and justice, as the guardian of the integrity and security of the people, as an arbiter in the "dispute" between personal and public interests. Finally, the civilizing function of the state is very important.

PERIODIZATION OF THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREECE

The history of ancient Greece covers a huge historical era - from the end of the III millennium BC. e. until the end of the 1st c. BC e., i.e. over two millennia. During this period, in the Aegean (Aegean Sea basin), there was a transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and two civilizations replaced each other.

In the era bronze age on the island of Crete and on the territory of Balkan Greece, a civilization developed, which, according to two main centers - in the Aegean Sea (Crete) and on the mainland (Mycenae) - was called Crete-Mycenaean. According to archaeological dating, there are three periods in the history of Crete and Balkan Greece.

For the history of Crete they are called Minoan(named after its legendary king, Minos):

1) Early Minoan period - XXX-XX centuries. BC. - the final stage of the existence of the tribal system, when conditions were created for the emergence of civilization;

2) Middle Minoan period - XX-X? Pvv. BC. - the so-called period of "old palaces" - the emergence of civilization in Crete;

3) late Minoan period - XVII-XIV centuries. BC e. - the heyday of civilization in Crete until the grandiose catastrophe, after which Crete was conquered by the Achaeans, and the Minoan society was destroyed.

Periods in the history of Balkan Greece are called Helladic:

1) Early Helladic period - XXX-XXG centuries. BC - the existence of a late tribal community among the autochthonous population of the Balkan Peninsula;

2) Middle Helladic period - XX-XVII centuries. BC e. - the settlement of the Balkan Peninsula by the Achaean Greeks, who were at the stage of decomposition of primitive communal relations;

3) late Helladic period - XVI-XII centuries. BC e. - the emergence of the Mycenaean civilization of the Bronze Age among the Achaeans and its death as a result of the Dorian invasion.

After that, the Greek world again finds itself in the primitive era, simultaneously with the beginning iron age. Under these conditions, a new ancient Civilization, the central element of which is the socio-political and economic phenomenon - the policy.

In the history of the ancient civilization of Ancient Greece, four periods are distinguished:

1) Homeric, or prepolis, period - ХГ-ГХ centuries. BC e. - the era of the existence of the tribal system;

2) archaic period - VII-VI centuries. BC e. - the emergence of ancient civilization, the formation of the Greek policy; the spread of the polis structure of the state throughout the Mediterranean;

3) classical period - ?-IVc. BC - the heyday of ancient civilization and the Greek classical policy;

4) Hellenistic period - the end of the IV-G century. BC e. - the conquest of the Persian state by Alexander the Great and the merging of the ancient world with the civilizations of the Ancient East in the vast expanses of the Eastern Mediterranean; the conquest of the Hellenistic states by Rome in the west and Parthia in the east.

After the fall of the last Hellenistic state - the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt - Rome becomes the center of the historical development of the Mediterranean and the entire ancient civilization, and the history of ancient Greek society, which became an integral part of the ancient Roman world power, is already considered within the framework of the history of Ancient Rome.

While Ancient Greece existed, the boundaries of the ancient world were continuously expanding. The cradle of the first European civilization at the turn of the III-II millennium BC. e. became the islands of the Aegean Sea and the south of the Balkan Peninsula. On the mainland, the first centers of civilization for many centuries remained only islands in the vast sea of ​​the primitive tribal world. At the end of the II millennium BC. e. Greek tribes mastered the entire basin of the Aegean Sea, densely populating the western coast of Asia Minor. In the archaic era, the Greeks brought colonies to the island of Sicily and southern Italy, as well as on the coast of Spain and Gaul. They created a number of settlements in northern Africa and firmly established themselves in the Black Sea basin. In the Hellenistic era, as a result of the victorious campaigns of Alexander the Great, ancient civilization spread over a vast territory from the Greek colonies on the coast of Spain to the Hellenistic kingdoms on the border with India and from the Northern Black Sea region to the southern borders of Egypt. But at all times the Balkan Greece and the Aegean remained the center of ancient Greece.

Every historical science studies its subject by investigating historical facts. Fact is the starting point of scientific research seeking to restore the historical realities of the past. Historical facts preserved for us by historical sources, which scientists use to reconstruct the past. The historical source is all the monuments of the past, i.e., all surviving evidence reflecting a person's past life and activities. The historical source is necessarily secondary to the fact to which it bears witness. In particular, the amount of information and the objectivity of a written source is always affected by both the material where it is recorded, and the position and personal attitude to the events of its compiler. Often this leads to a distortion of information, to the fact that many attendant circumstances hide the historical truth, and this does not allow using the information gleaned from the historical source directly, without critical selection.

Historical sources differ in the content of evidence of the past and the nature of the information:

1) real sources are various monuments of material culture (the remains of buildings, tools and weapons, household items, coins, etc.);

2) written sources are all kinds of works, including literary works of the era under study, inscriptions of various contents that have come down to us;

3) linguistic sources are the data of the ancient Greek language (lexicon, grammatical structure, onomastics, toponymy, idioms, etc.); a lot about the people is said by its dialects and koine (common Greek language);

4) folklore sources are monuments of oral folk art (tales, songs, fables, proverbs, etc.), which have come down to us thanks to the fact that they were subsequently written down;

5) ethnographic sources are customs, rituals, beliefs, etc., which have been preserved in the form of remnants in later eras.

However, sources on the history of Ancient Greece have a number of features, which directly affect the ability to comprehensively and fully restore historical realities. The main problem of ancient studies is the scarcity of the source base (compared to materials from later historical periods). It should also be noted that ethnographic sources played a relatively small role in the study of the ancient world, since none of the modern researchers could directly observe the ancient society. However, ethnographic data can be used as comparative historical material in the study of the origin of myths, rituals, customs, etc.

In addition, the relatively limited amount of evidence from the past is unevenly represented both by different eras and regions, and by types of sources. This fully applies to the most important written sources for the historian. Many stages of ancient Greek history spanning several centuries are poorly reflected in written monuments, which provide basic information about the life of society in the past. In fact, not a single era of ancient Greek history has a complete and comprehensive coverage in the sources, and for some very long periods, historians have very scarce and fragmentary evidence.

Heinrich Schliemann

In addition, in many sources that have come down to us, information on a number of issues is presented in a very complex or veiled form. Therefore, the analysis of the source and the interpretation of ancient history on their basis inevitably causes an ambiguous and often controversial assessment of objective realities and subjective phenomena in the life of the society of Ancient Greece.

Archaeological discoveries of the 19th-20th centuries played a huge role in the formation of antiquity studies. German archaeologist G. Schliemann(1822-1890) in the second half of the 19th century. discovered the ruins of the legendary Troy, and then the majestic ruins of Mycenae and Tiryns (fortifications, ruins of palaces, tombs). The richest material about previously unknown pages of the past, which were considered fiction, fell into the hands of historians. So it was opened mycenaean culture, preceding the culture of the era of Homer. These sensational finds expanded and enriched the understanding of the most ancient period of history and stimulated further archaeological research.

The largest archaeological discoveries have been made in Crete. Englishman A. Evans(1851-1941) excavated the palace of the legendary ruler of Crete, King Minos, at Knossos. Scientists have discovered other ancient settlements in Crete and neighboring islands. These discoveries gave the world a unique Minoan culture first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e., an earlier culture than the Mycenaean.

Systematic archaeological research conducted both on the Balkan Peninsula (in Athens, Olympia, Delphi) and the islands of Rhodes and Delos, and on the Asia Minor coast of the Aegean Sea (in Miletus, Pergamum), gave historians a huge number of the most diverse sources. All leading European countries and the United States founded archaeological schools in Greece. They turned into centers of antiquity, which not only improved the methods of excavation and processing of archaeological material, but also developed new approaches to the study of the histories of Ancient Greece.

Russian scientists did not stand aside either. After the establishment in Russia in 1859 of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, a systematic study of Greco-Scythian antiquities in the Northern Black Sea region began. Archaeologists began to excavate mounds and Greek colonies. (Olvia, Chersonese, Panticapaeum, Tanais, etc.). A number of sensational finds were made that adorned the expositions of the Hermitage and other major Russian museums. Later, when the research was headed by the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, they were joined by scientists and students of the country's leading historical universities.

Arthur Evans

As a result of almost a century and a half of archaeological research, the most diverse and sometimes unique sources fell into the hands of antiquities, discovering many previously unknown or unfamiliar in the history of ancient Greece. But archaeological finds alone (the remains of fortresses, palaces, temples, works of art, ceramics and utensils, necropolises, tools and weapons) cannot give a complete picture of the historical processes of the development of society. Material evidence of the past can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, without supporting the archaeological material with data from other sources, many aspects of ancient history threaten to remain blank spots in our knowledge of the past.

All written monuments are the most important historical sources that allow you to restore the course of specific events, find out what worried people, what they aspired to, how relations were built in the state at the social and personal levels. Written sources subdivided into literary, or narrative, and documentary.

The earliest that have come down to us literary sources are epic poems Homer"Iliad" and "Odyssey", created at the beginning of the VIII century. BC e. The Homeric epic differs significantly from the mythological and epic works of the peoples of the Ancient East, since, due to the presence of secular, rational aspects, it contains very valuable information. The works of Homer lay the foundations of historical tradition and historical worldview. The memory of the thousand-year era of the Crete-Mycenaean civilization with its events, and above all with the fighting of the Trojan War, outgrew the boundaries of myth and became a historical landmark that determined in the collective memory of the Hellenes not only mythological, like most peoples, but also historical time. That is why the social system, mores, customs, etc. are reflected in artistic images vividly and reliably. At the same time, Homer's mythological picture of the world is widely represented. The world of the gods depicted by the poet (their images, functions) became the basis for the Greek Olympic religion.

An important epic source is the didactic poem of the Boeotian poet Hesiod(border of VIII-VII centuries BC) "Theogony". In the story about the origin of the gods, the poet draws a picture of the development of the world, reflecting the religious and mythological ideas of the Greek society of the archaic era. In this epic, mythological tales of the ancient past already merge with the description of the real history of the contemporary author. In the poem "Works and Days" the poet gives realistic pictures of the life of the peasants of his time. The didactic epic of Hesiod argues that a just order is necessary not only for the world of the gods, but also for the world of people.

By the 7th century BC e. the intensive development of the Greek world left no room for the heroic epic. The most complete reflection of the era of the formation of a new, urban society and the emergence of an active personality are various genres of lyrics. In elegies and iambic Tirtea from Lacedaemon, Solon from Athens Theognis from Megara reflected the complex life of society, riddled with acute political conflicts, in which it is difficult for a person to find peace and happiness. The new self-awareness of the individual was reflected in poetry Archilochus and especially in the work of the Aeolian poets Alcaea And Sappho.

In addition to works of art, you can learn about the life of Ancient Greece from historical writings, official certificates of various kinds. The first documentary records were made in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in Achaean society. With the advent of the alphabet and the approval of policies, documentary evidence becomes much larger. Thus, from the fusion of the historical attitude in poetic creativity with official documentary records in ancient Greece, a historical tradition arose. It was reflected in a special prose genre, the development of which eventually led to the formation history as a science.

The emergence of Greek historical prose dates back to the 6th century. BC e. and is connected with the activity of the so-called logographers. Outlining the plots of distant mythological antiquity, tracing the genealogy of ancient heroes and the history of the cities founded by them, they were close to epic poets. But these were already historical works. Describing the legendary past, logographers introduced documentary materials, geographical and ethnographic information into the text. And although myth and reality are bizarrely intertwined in their works, an attempt at a rationalistic rethinking of the legend is already clearly visible. On the whole, the works of the logographers mark a transitional stage from myth, with its sacred history, to logos, with its scientific study of the past.

The first historical work created Herodotus from Halikartas (c. 485-425 BC), who was called "the father of history" in antiquity. During the political struggle, he was expelled from his native city. After that, he traveled a lot, visited the Greek policies in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as a number of countries of the Ancient East. This allowed Herodotus to collect extensive material about the life of the contemporary world.

A great influence on the formation of his own historical concept was exerted on Herodotus by his stay in Athens, where he became close to the leader of the Athenian democracy, Pericles. In his work, which is commonly called "History", Herodotus described the course of the war between the Greeks and Persians. This is genuine treatise, since already in the first lines the author formulates a scientific problem that he is trying to investigate and substantiate: “Herodotus of Halicarnassus presents the following research in order ... so that the reason for which the war arose between them was not forgotten.” To reveal this reason, Herodotus turns to the prehistory of events. He tells about the history of the ancient Eastern countries and peoples that became part of the Persian state (Egypt, Babylonia, Media, Scythians), and then about the history of the Greek policies, and only after that he proceeds to describe military operations. To find the truth, Herodotus takes a critical approach to the selection and analysis of sources involved. And although the degree of reliability of the information collected by the historian varies, and some episodes in the treatise are fictional, nevertheless, most of the information from the History is confirmed by other sources, and above all by archaeological discoveries. However, the thinking of Herodotus is still traditional: the divine power, which rewards good and punishes evil, acts as a regularity in history. But the main merit of Herodotus is that, through his work, a source appeared in the hands of scientists, where the core of the events described is historical time and deliberately introduced historicism.

The principle of historicism, first used by Herodotus, was developed and made dominant in the scientific treatise by his younger contemporary, the Athenian. Thucydides(c. 460-396 BC). He was born into a noble family, took part in the Peloponnesian War, but due to the fact that he could not protect the city of Amphipolis from the Spartans, he was expelled from Athens. In exile, where he spent almost two decades, Thucydides decided to describe the history of the Peloponnesian War.

The historian is interested in all the events of which he was a contemporary. But in order to find historical truth, Thucydides conducts a strict critical selection of historical sources, using only those that contain reliable information: which he himself was an eyewitness, and what he heard from others, after as accurate as possible investigations regarding each fact taken separately. To do this, he visited the scene, talked with eyewitnesses, got acquainted with the documents. Such an approach to facts allows him, in presenting the course of history, no longer to explain the events taking place by the intervention of the gods, but to find objective reasons events and the reasons that caused them, which helps to identify patterns of historical events. For him, a direct connection between successes in the conduct of hostilities and the stability of the internal political situation in the state is clear. History, according to Thucydides, is made People, acting in accordance with their "nature". Their interests, aspirations and passions are stronger than laws and agreements.

Thucydides played a decisive role in establishing scientific knowledge about the past. He developed a critical method for analyzing historical sources and was the first to reveal patterns of historical development. For all subsequent generations of researchers, Thucydides laid the foundation for understanding the meaning of historical development and human actions. His work is a valuable historical source, in which the events described are as objectively as possible covered.

The genre of historical research was further developed in the 4th century. The unfinished "History" by Thucydides, which ended at the description of the events of 411 BC. e., continued literally from the last phrase in his "Greek History" Xenophon from Athens (c. 445-355). But in his presentation of the material more clearly than in Thucydides, the personal position of the author, who came from a wealthy family, received an aristocratic upbringing and was a student of Socrates, is manifested. A supporter of the Spartan state system, Xenophon was critical of Athenian democracy. This explains a certain bias in the presentation of the material. In addition, Xenophon does not use the sources involved critically enough, sometimes interpreting events to please his predilections, and also paying great attention to individual personalities, does not try to reveal the objective causes of historical events. However, his "Greek History", describing the events from 411 to 362 BC. e., remains the most important source for studying the difficult era of acute struggle between the policies and the crisis of the classical Greek policy.

Xenophon was not only a historian. A number of his treatises reflected his political predilections. In the essay “On the State Structure of the Lacedaemonians”, he idealizes the Spartan order, and in the “Cyropaedia”, dedicated to the upbringing of the founder of the Persian state, Cyrus the Elder, he sympathizes with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200ba monarchical structure of the state. Interesting information about the Persian state, its mercenary army and the life of the peoples on the territory of Asia Minor is contained in the treatise "Anabasis" ("Ascent"). It tells about the participation of Greek mercenaries, including Xenophon, in the internecine struggle for the Persian throne on the side of Cyrus the Younger.

Of great interest from the point of view of the development of philosophical thought and the characteristics of Athenian life is the treatise "Memories of Socrates", which recorded the conversations of the famous philosopher with his students. Xenophon's views on the most expedient methods of managing the economy are reflected in the essay "Economics" (or "Domostroy"), and suggestions on how to improve the financial situation of the Athenian state are reflected in the work "On Incomes". In general, Xenophon's numerous treatises contain diverse and valuable, but not always objective information about the most diverse aspects of the life of the Greek society of his time.

The main merit of Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon was the spread of interest in history in Greek society and the establishment historical approach to past events. Some, like Xenophon, and also Kratappus, or the "Oxirinian historian," directly continued the studies of Thucydides, imitating the great historian with varying degrees of success. Others, like Ephor, Theopompus and Timaeus, came "into history" from oratorical schools. But the result was the appearance of a large number of treatises on the history of Athens, Sicily and Italy, Persia, the reign of King Philip II, etc. They had a huge impact not only on the formation of historical consciousness in Greek society (these works were widely used by scientists of subsequent eras), but and on the formation of a historical tradition in neighboring societies.

An important source on the classical era is the ancient Greek dramaturgy - the works of the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and the comedian Aristophanes. As citizens of the Athenian polis, they took an active part in the political events of their time, which was directly reflected in their poetic works. The peculiarity of this type of literary source lies in the fact that here reality is presented through artistic images. But since during this period the Greek theater actively participated in the formation of the polis system of values ​​and democratic morality, the literary images were not the fruit of idle fiction or the interpretation of legendary mythological plots, but were an expression of the dominant civil worldview, objective assessments and judgments of the Athenian society.

Playwright Aeschylus(525-456 BC) was a contemporary of acute internal political clashes during the formation of Athenian democracy and the struggle of the Greeks for freedom in the era of the Greco-Persian wars. A participant in the main battles of the Greeks with the conquerors, he expressed the patriotic mood of the Hellenes in the tragedy "Persians", written about real historical events. Even in the works of Aeschylus on mythological subjects (trilogies "Oresteia", "Chained Prometheus", "Seven Against Thebes", etc.), there are constantly allusions to modern events and all the actions of the characters are evaluated from the position of a civil ideal.

The model of an honest citizen is the poet and playwright Sophocles(496-406 BC). In his tragedies "Oedipus Rex", "Antigone", "Ajax" and others, he raises such important issues as the morality of power, the place of wealth in life, and attitudes towards war. But, despite the objective expression of public sentiment, the views of Sophocles are largely traditional, which brings him closer to Herodotus. He sees in events a manifestation of the divine will, before which a person must humble himself. People will suffer inevitable punishment if they dare to violate the world order established by the gods.

tragedy Euripides(480-406 BC) Medea, Petitioners, Electra, Iphigenia in Tauris, and others introduce the public mood of that era, and not only the democratic ideals of the Athenians, their exaltation of friendship and nobility , but also with a negative attitude towards the Spartans, wealth, etc. An important place in the tragedies of Euripides is shown by the everyday life of ancient Athens, including family relationships, in particular between husband and wife.

An interesting source on the political history of Athens are comedies. Aristophanes(c. 445 - c. 385 BC). His work falls on the period of the Peloponnesian War, which was difficult for Athens, and in his plays “Aharnians”, “Horsemen” and “Peace”, he affirms the idea of ​​​​peace, expressing the anti-war sentiments of the Athenian peasants, who bear the greatest hardships of the war. Shortcomings in the life of the Athenian state (“Wasps”, “Women in the National Assembly”), and newfangled scientific and philosophical theories (“Clouds”) were subjected to caustic satire. The works of Aristophanes are a response to all important events in the life of the Athenian polis. They very accurately reflect the real life and moods of Greek society, which are weakly traced according to other sources.

An irreplaceable historical source are philosophical and rhetorical works. At the end of the 5th - the first half of the 4th c. BC. the intense political life and the creative spiritual atmosphere in the policies contributed to the development of science, the desire to comprehend all the diversity of society. An outstanding philosopher was Plato(427-347 BC). For historians, his treatises "The State" and "Laws" are of great interest, where the author, in accordance with his socio-political views, suggests ways for a just reorganization of society and gives a "recipe" for an ideal state system.

Plato's Disciple Aristotle(384-322 BC) tried to explore history and political structure over 150 states. Of his works, only the Athenian Politia has survived, which systematically describes the history and state structure of the Athenian policy. Extensive and varied information is gleaned from numerous sources, both extant (the works of Herodotus, Thucydides) and almost completely lost (like the Attids - the Athenian chronicles).

Aristotle

Based on the study of the life of the Greek policies, Aristotle created a generalizing theoretical work "Politics" - about the essence of the state. His provisions, Aristotle based on an analysis of the real processes of the historical development of Hellas, predetermined the further development of political thought in ancient Greece.

Texts are a kind of historical source speakers' speeches. Written for pronunciation in a popular assembly or in court, they are, of course, polemically pointed. Political speeches Demosthenes, court speeches Lisia, solemn eloquence Isocrates and others contain important information about various aspects of the life of Greek society.

Oratory had a huge impact both on the development of social thought in Greece and on the stylistic features of written texts. In order to please the laws of rhetoric, the main thing in speech gradually becomes not the accuracy and truthfulness of the presentation, but the external attractiveness and polemical tendentiousness of the speech, in which historical objectivity is sacrificed to the beauty of form.

irreplaceable historical evidence are epigraphic sources, i.e., inscriptions made on a solid surface: stone, ceramics, metal. Greek society was educated, and therefore quite a variety of inscriptions have come down to us. These are state decrees, articles of contracts, building inscriptions, inscriptions on the pedestals of statues, dedicatory inscriptions to the gods, gravestone inscriptions, lists of officials, various business documents (accounts, property lease and mortgage agreements, acts of sale, etc.) , inscriptions during voting in the national assembly, etc. (more than 200 thousand inscriptions have already been found). Both multi-line inscriptions and inscriptions in a few words are of great value, since they relate to all aspects of the life of the ancient Greeks, including everyday life, which is practically not reflected in literary sources. But the main thing is that the inscriptions were made in most cases by ordinary citizens and express their worldview. The German scientist A. Bockh was the first to publish Greek inscriptions back in 1886. The latest collection of Greek historical inscriptions to date was published in 1989 by R. Meiggs and D. Lewis.

During the Hellenistic era narrative sources (i.e., narrative) acquire new features. During this period, the Greek historian Polybius(c. 201 - c. 120 BC) the first "General History" was written. As a young man, he actively participated in the activities

Achaean Union and after the defeat of Macedonia, among other representatives of the Achaean nobility, was taken to Rome as a hostage. There he became close to the pro-Hellenic consul Scipio Aemilianus and soon also became an admirer of Rome. In an effort to understand the reasons for the rise of Rome, Polybius studied the state archives, met with participants in the events, and traveled. In 40 books (the first five books have been fully preserved) of the General History, historical events in the Mediterranean from 220 to 146 BC are described. e. Carefully selecting the facts, Polybius strove for historical truth in order to show the pattern of Rome's gaining world domination. Based on the study of historical processes, he created an original theory of historical development, in which there is a pattern of degeneration of the main forms of the state - from royal power to democracy.

Another major historian of this period was Diodorus Siculus(c. 90-21 BC). In his "Historical Library" (out of 40 books, books 1-5 and 11-20 have come down to us, and only fragments from the rest) described in detail the history of the Mediterranean states, including the history of classical Greece. Diodorus pays special attention economic development Hellenistic states and the socio-political struggle between their rulers. Despite some chronological inaccuracies, his work, based on reliable sources, is of great historical value.

Essays contain important information. Plutarch(c. 45 - c. 127), primarily biographies of major Greek and Roman politicians and Hellenistic kings, as well as various information from the socio-political and cultural life of ancient society. The facts used to cover the activities of prominent personalities of the Hellenistic period are more reliable than the data of earlier eras.

Interesting information, the reliability of which is confirmed by archaeological excavations, was left by the Greek historian Pausanias(II century) in the ten-volume Description of Hellas. This work, based on the author's observations and other sources, contains detailed description architectural monuments (temples, theaters, public buildings), works of sculpture and painting. In his presentation, Pausanias uses not only historical information, but also myths.

The era of Hellenism, with its contradictions, when the cultures of East and West, rational and irrational, divine and human, were closely intertwined, also influenced historical science. This was most evident in the work Arriane(between 95 and 175 II.) "Anabasis", dedicated to the description of the campaigns of Alexander the Great. On the one hand, it tells in detail about the real events and military actions of the commander, and on the other hand, various miracles and signs are constantly mentioned, which give the historical reality a fantastic look and raise Alexander to the level of a deity.

The romantic tradition of perceiving the personality of Alexander the Great is also characteristic of other historians: Pompeius Trogus (end of the 1st century BC), whose works have come down in the transcription of Justin (2nd-3rd centuries), and Curtius Rufus (1st century).

With the era of Hellenism is associated with the rapid development book culture. Books of the most diverse content connected the individual experience of a person with the life of the vast inhabited world that opened up for the Greeks. Numerous scientific treatises on various areas of human knowledge and works of fiction contain a wealth of information about knowledge, experience gained, everyday life, and the characters of people of that era. Of great interest to historians are treatises on economics: the pseudo-Aristotelian "Economics" (end of the 4th century BC) and the "Economics" of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus (1st century BC).

Reliable and valuable information contains "Geography" Strabo(64/63 BC - 23/24 AD). The writer traveled a lot and supplemented his observations with information gleaned from other scientists: Eratosthenes, Posidonius, Polybius, and others. Strabo tells in detail about the geographical position of countries and regions, climate, the presence of minerals, and the peculiarities of the economic activity of peoples. He has many excursions into the past, but most of the information refers to the Hellenistic era.

In the field of natural science literature, it should be noted the works Theophrastus(Theophrastus, 372-287 BC) “On Plants” and “On Stones”, where not only extensive information on botany and mineralogy is given, but also interesting information in agriculture and mining. In the treatise "Characters" Theophrastus presented Various types people and describe their behavior in various situations.

Of the works of fiction, the playwright's everyday comedies most accurately reflect the era Menander(343-291 BC), as well as epigrams and idylls (bucolics) of the poet Theocritus(III century BC).

We have received a huge number inscriptions, which contain the most diverse information on almost all spheres of life of the Hellenistic society. They have been published in publications of a different nature (for example, in the Inscriptions of Greece, in thematic collections of legal inscriptions, historical inscriptions, etc.). Of great interest are the economic documents of the temple of Apollo on the island of Delos, the decrees of rulers and manumisia- acts of emancipation of slaves. For the study of individual areas, collections of documents by region are important. So, in 1885-1916. V. V. Latyshev prepared a collection of Greek and Latin inscriptions from the Northern Black Sea region (three volumes out of four planned by the author were published).

During the Hellenistic era, texts on papyri (there are more than 250 thousand of them), created mainly in Ptolemaic Egypt. They contain a wide variety of information: these are royal decrees, economic documents, marriage contracts, religious texts, etc. Thanks to papyri, the many-sided life of Egypt is better known than the life of other Hellenistic states.

Much information about the history of the Hellenistic states is given archaeological excavations And coins.

Modern historians have at their disposal numerous and varied sources that allow them to fully explore all aspects of the life of ancient Greek society.

Andokid. Speeches. SPb., 1996.

Apollodorus. Mythological library. M., 1993.

Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautics. Tbilisi, 1964.

Aristotle. Athenian polity. M., 1937.

Aristotle. History of animals. M., 1996. T. 1-4.

Aristotle. Works. M., 1975-1984. T. 1-2.

Aristophanes. Comedy. M., 1983.

Arrian. Alexander's hike. SPb., 1993.

Archimedes. Works. M., 1973.

Athenaeus. Feast of the Wise Men: Books 1-8. M., 2003.

Achilles Tatius. Leucippe and Clitophon;

Long. Daphnis and Chloe;

PETRONIUS. Satyricon;

Apuleius. Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass. M., 1969.

Heliodor. Ethiopian. Minsk, 1993.

Herodotus. Story. M., 2004.

Hygin. Myths. SPb., 1997.

Hippocrates. Selected books. M., 1994.

Homer. Iliad. L., 1990.

Homer. Odyssey. M., 1984.

Greek orators of the second half of the 4th c. BC e .: Hyperides, Lycurgus, Dinarch, Aeschines // Bulletin of ancient history. 1962. No. 1-4; 1963. No. 1.

Demosthenes. Speeches. M., 1994-1996. T. 1-3.

Diogenes Laertes. About the life, teachings and sayings of famous philosophers. M., 1986.

Diodorus Siculus. Historical Library: Greek Mythology. M., 2000.

Euripides. Tragedy. M., 1998-1999. T. 1-2.

Isocrates. Speeches // Bulletin of ancient history. 1965. No. 3, 4; 1966. No. 1-4; 1967. No. 1, 3, 4; 1968. No. 1-4; 1969. No. 1, 2.

Cornelius Nepos. About famous foreign commanders. M., 1992.

Xenophon. Anabasis. M., 1994.

Xenophon. Memories of Socrates. M., 1993.

Xenophon. Greek history. SPb., 1993. Xenophon. Cyropedia. M., 1993.

Curtius Ruf Sq. History of Alexander the Great. M., 1993.

Foxy. Speeches. M., 1994.

Lucian. Selected prose. M., 1991.

Menander. Comedy. M., 1964.

Pausanias. Description of Hellas. M., 1994. T. 1-2.

Pindar. Bacchilid. Odes. Fragments. M., 1980.

Plato. Collected works. M., 1990-1994. T. 1-4.

Pliny the Elder. natural science; About art. M., 1994.

Plutarch. Table talks. L., 1990.

Plutarch. Comparative biographies. M., 1994. T. 1-2.

Polybius. General history. SPb., 1994-1995. T. 1-3.

Polian. Strategems. SPb., 2002.

Sophocles. Drama. M., 1990.

Strabo. Geography. M., 1994.

Theophrastus. Characters. M., 1993.

Philostratus. Paintings;

Callistratus. Description of the statues. Tomsk, 1996.

Frontinus Sextus Julius. Military tricks (Strategems). SPb., 1996.

Thucydides. Story. M., 1993.

Khariton. The Tale of Chaerea and Calliroe. SPb., 1994.

Elian Claudius. Motley stories. M., 1995.

Aeschylus. Tragedy. M., 1989.

Anthologies, readers, etc.

Alexandria poetry. M., 1972.

antique fable. M., 1991.

antique democracy in the testimonies of contemporaries. M., 1996.

antique Literature: Greece: An Anthology. M., 1989. T. 1-2.

antique hymns. M., 1988.

antique rhetoric. M., 1978.

Anthology sources on the history, culture and religion of Ancient Greece. SPb., 2000.

Greek epigram. SPb., 1993. ancient greek elegy. SPb., 1996.

Interstate Relations and Diplomacy in Antiquity: A Reader. Kazan, 2002. Part 2.

Molchanov A. A., Neroznak V. P., Sharypkin S. Ya. Monuments of ancient Greek writing. M., 1988.

Fragments early Greek philosophers. M., 1989. Part 1.

Reader on the history of the ancient world: Hellenism: Rome. M., 1998.

Reader on the history of ancient Greece. M., 1964.

Hellenic poets of the 8th-3rd centuries BC e. M., 1999.

The study of the history of the Ancient World was started by the historians of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The beginning of this was laid by the famous scientist of the 5th century. BC e. Herodotus, founder of historical science, and his younger contemporary Thucydides. And in the future, each period of studying the history of antiquity was associated with many names of famous historians and a large number of interesting and in-depth studies.

The works of historians reflected not only the skill of the researcher in reconstructing the distant past on the basis of a rigorous analysis of sources, but also the level of development of historical thought, as well as the historical-philosophical, political concepts and social ideas that prevailed in society at that time. The historiography of Ancient Greece, i.e. the whole mass of studies devoted to the study of Hellas in antiquity, is incredibly extensive and multifaceted, and therefore, based on the capabilities of the textbook, this chapter discusses the general principles of historical research, and specific aspects of the historiography of Ancient Greece (individual periods and problems) we will talk further, when we get acquainted with real historical material.

The first scientific works on the history of ancient Greece date back to the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. At this time, the leading Western European researchers of antiquity F. Wolf(F.Wolff), B. Niebuhr(B. Niebuhr) and R. Bentley(R. Bentley), having developed the principles of source analysis, created a historical-critical method of historical research. The achievements of art history analysis made it possible to recreate a historically truthful picture of the past. The founder of ancient art history is a German historian I. Winkelman(J. Winckelmann, 1717-1768), who published in 1763 "The History of the Art of Antiquity" ("Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums"), in which the first classification of works of Greek art was given.

IN early XIX V. a German scientist had a great influence on the development of antiquity A. Böck(A. Bockh), who, on the basis of the collected inscriptions, studied the economic history of Athens. German historian I. Droyzen(J. Droysen, 1808-1884) was the first to explore the history of the Greek world after the campaigns of Alexander the Great and called this period the term "Hellenism". His History of Hellenism (Russian translation 1890-1893) is the first systematic study of the last three centuries of ancient Greek history.

A significant phenomenon in antiquity was the "History of Greece" by an Englishman J. Grota(G. Grote). In this 12-volume study, the history of the Athenian polis and the creation of democracy were seen as the central events of all ancient Greek history. This approach became fundamental for most researchers of ancient Greece.

In The Ancient Civil Society (1864), the French historian N. Fustel de Coulanges(N. Fustel de Coulanges, 1830–1889) was the first to show that the formation of the Greek civil community, the policy, predetermined all the originality of ancient civilization.

The French historian took a different look at antiquity A. Vallon(A. Wallon). In his work "History of slavery in the ancient world" (1879), showing a large specific gravity slavery in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, he gave a negative assessment of the slave system.

The work of the Swiss historian J. Burkhardt(J. Burckhardt, 1818-1897) "History of Greek culture" ("Grechische Kultur-geschichte", 1893-1902) became fundamental for subsequent historical and cultural studies of the ancient world.

In Russia, the founder of the method of critical use of ancient sources was a professor at St. Petersburg University M. S. Kutorga(1809-1886), who studied Athenian society. Many well-known Russian scientists who developed various aspects of the history of Ancient Greece came out of his scientific school. The historical and philological direction was developed F.F.Sokolov(1841-1909) and V. V. Latyshev(1855–1921), who laid the foundations for studying the socio-political history of the states of the Northern Black Sea region. Cultural and historical direction headed F. F. Zelinsky(1859-1944). Socio-economic problems explored M. I. Rostovtsev(M. Rostovtzeff, 1870-1952) and M.M.Khvostov(1872-1920). The beginning of the socio-political direction in the study of antiquity was laid by the works V. P. Buzeskula(1858-1931) on Athenian democracy.

The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. - a period when new methodological approaches to the history of ancient society were outlined. In the 19th century K. Marx And F. Engels laid the foundations for a materialistic coverage of history based on formational approach, in which the mode of production and the form of exploitation predetermined all other aspects of society. As a result, the history of mankind appeared as a chain of formations, when one formation over time was replaced by another, more progressive one. The Marxist view of history for the first time made it possible to consider the history of human society as a single integral process. Within the framework of the formational approach, the ancient form of ownership was also analyzed for the first time as the basis of the economic life of the policy and the concept of the ancient mode of production based on the exploitation of slaves was formulated.

At the same time, it is born modernizing approach to ancient history. Its supporters likened ancient society to capitalist. This view of antiquity was most fully manifested in the works of the German historian Ed. Meyer(Ed. Meyer, 1855-1930), who created the theory of cyclism. He believed that Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome passed successively through the stages of the Middle Ages and capitalism, which "collapsed" along with Ancient Rome. After that, humanity had to again go through the path from the Middle Ages to capitalism.

The 20th century brought a lot of new things to the study of the history of the ancient world: methods of studying sources were improved, new methodological approaches were developed. During this period, multi-volume collective works of a generalizing nature appeared, in which Greek history is considered in the context of the general development of the Ancient World. The most famous of these works is Cambridge Ancient History (since 1970), which is revised with each reprint in order to most fully and adequately reflect the state of scientific knowledge in this area.

Significant results have been achieved in almost all areas of research into the ancient world. So, the success of English scientists contributed to the development of mycenology. M. ventrisa(M. Ventris) and J. Chadwick(J. Chadwick) in deciphering Linear B, which turned out to be the writing of the Achaean Greeks.

Only in the twentieth century began to study in depth the Homeric period, now recognized as a special historical era. An innovative approach to this problem was shown by M. Finlay(M. Finley) in the book "The World of Odysseus" ("The World of Odysseus", 1954). He convincingly proved that in most cases Homer's poems reflect the realities not of Achaean Greece, as was previously believed, but of the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e., when many features of primitive communal relations were still preserved.

Archaic era, the time of the formation of the Greek policy, in the XX century. also became the subject of active interest of historians. New approaches to solving the problems of Greek archaism were proposed by an American historian C. Starr(Ch. Starr). Unlike many scientists, he denies that the main content of the archaic era was a sharp social struggle between the old nobility, the demos and the "commercial and industrial class." According to Starr, in the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. Greece was still a simple society, without deep social stratification and sharply expressed material inequality. This society developed mainly in a peaceful, evolutionary way. Starr's ideas had a significant impact on subsequent historiography.

Studying the history of archaic Greece, scientists considered in detail such problems as the significance of the Great Greek colonization [J. boardman(J. Boardrnan)], the influence of connections with the ancient civilizations of the East on the formation of ancient civilization [IN. Burkert(W. Burkert)], features of Greek tyranny. In the XX century. many countries in Europe had to go through regimes of personal power, and this stimulated interest in similar regimes that existed in antiquity. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the best study to date on ancient Greek tyrants belongs to G. Berve(H. Berve) - a German scientist who, during the period of the Hitler regime, fell under the influence of fascist ideology for a while, but subsequently moved away from it and was able to objectively explain the nature of tyranny.

In the history of classical Greece, Athenian democracy undoubtedly attracted the greatest attention of scholars. Its various aspects were studied especially intensively at the end of the 20th century, in connection with the 2500th anniversary of the Cleisthenes reforms, which laid the foundations for the democratic structure of the Athenian polis. Interesting works on the history of classical Athens created P.Rhodes(P. Rhodes), M. Hansen(M. Hansen), J. Ober(J. Ober), R. Osborne(R. Osborne). Scientists are also interested in the Athenian maritime power - the largest military-political association of policies in ancient Greek history [R. Meiggs(R. Meiggs)].

To a detailed consideration of the crisis phenomena in the polis world of the 4th century. BC. in the middle of the twentieth century. applied K. Mosse(C. Mosse). It is characteristic that over a number of decades her views have undergone significant changes, and now in her works this well-known historian no longer emphasizes the economic, as before, but the political aspects of the crisis.

In the middle of the twentieth century. scientists began to consider Hellenism not as a certain set of historical events (as Droysen believed), but as a civilizational unity characterized by a synthesis of ancient and oriental elements in the main areas of life [IN. Tarn(W.Tarn)].

With all the diversity of interests of historians, several problems remained central to ancient studies. Thus, in the field of the study of socio-economic relations, a discussion broke out between "modernizers" and "primitives". Supporters of the modernizing approach [ M. I. Rostovtsev, F. Heichelheim(F. Heichelheim) and others] belongs to a number of fundamental studies on the problems of the ancient Greek economy. But by the middle of the 20th century the limitations of this approach became apparent. In a brilliant "anti-modernizer" work M. Finlay"The Ancient Economy" ("Ancient Economics", 1973) showed that the economic realities and categories characteristic of antiquity are fundamentally different from capitalist ones. In many historical works, a new interpretation of ancient slavery as an economic system was given. [W. Westerman(W. Westermann), J. Vogt(J. Vogt), F. Gshnitzer(F. Gschnitzer)].

One of the main tasks of antiquity studies is the study of the problems of the Greek policy. In the 90s of the twentieth century. in the Copenhagen Center for the Study of Polis, headed by M. Hansen, a number of comprehensive studies were prepared. The main features of the analysis of polis issues by historians of the Hansen school are reliance on these sources (and not on speculative concepts), the desire for a wide geographical coverage of the phenomena studied, the use of a comparative historical method (comparison of the Greek polis with city-states of other types that existed in different eras and in different regions).

In the second half of the twentieth century. the need for new methodological approaches to ancient Greek history began to be acutely felt, which would allow a new assessment of the colossal accumulated material. At this time, the historical research was widely used historical-anthropological approach to history, developed by the Annals School. Influenced by these ideas, French scientists [L. Gernet(L. Gernet), J. – P. Vernand(J.P. Vernant) P.Vidal-Nacke(P. Vidal-Naquet), M. Detienne(M. Deti-enne) and others] created a number of interesting works in which they took a fresh look at the problems of antiquity. They attempted to consider various sides and aspects of ancient civilization not in isolation from each other, but in a system of mutual relations, to abandon deterministic ideas that there are primary, “basic” elements in society and secondary, “superstructural” elements rigidly conditioned by them. (whatever you mean by base and superstructure).

Domestic antiquity was adequately represented in almost all areas of study of the history of ancient Greece. A distinctive feature of Soviet science was the widespread use of Marxist methodology, based on the isolation of a formation with its inherent mode of production and class structure (works A. I. Tyumeneva, S. I. Kovalev, V. S. Sergeeva, K. M. Kolobova). Such a consideration of ancient society predetermined the predominant interest of Soviet historians in the problems of socio-economic development, or at least the use of Marxist terminology. (S. Ya. Lurie).

In the 60-90s of the XX century. was published a series of monographs "Studies on the history of slavery in the ancient world" (works Ya. A. Lentsman, K. K. Zelyin, M. K. Trofimova, A. I. Dovatur, A. I. Pavlovskaya etc.), which became an important contribution to the world of antiquity. The result of international recognition of the achievements of Soviet historians was the participation of our scientists in the activities of the International Group for the Study of Ancient Slavery (USEA). The Marxist approach found its supporters abroad as well. [J. de Sainte-Croix(G. de Ste Croix) and others, as well as a group of scientists from the University of Besancon, headed by P.Levekom(P. Leveque)]. This played a significant role in bringing Russian science closer to Western science. In works on socio-economic topics, Russian scientists are beginning to use the positive achievements of Western historiography, while at the same time defending the originality and originality of their own approaches.

Russian historians are attracted by various aspects of ancient Greek history. By tradition, many works are devoted to the study of the problems of the Greek policy (G. A. Koshelenko, E. D. Frolov, L. P. Marinovich, L. M. Gluskina, V. N. Andreev, Yu. V. Andreev). Crete-Mycenaean era interested Yu. V. Andreeva, A. A. Molchanova, history of the Hellenistic states - K. K. Zelyina, E. S. Golubtsov, G. A. Koshelenko, A. S. Shofman, V. I. Kashcheev.

Issues related to the ancient history of the Northern Black Sea region have always remained a priority for domestic science. (S. A. Zhebelev, V. D. Blavatsky, V. F. Gaidukevich, Yu. G. Vinogradov, S. Yu. Saprykin, E. A. Molev). A reflection of the level of development of domestic antiquity and its achievements by the end of the twentieth century. were collective works ancient greece"(1983) and" Hellenism. Economy, politics, culture" (1990).

IN last years domestic historians increasingly began to pay attention to the civilizational and historical-anthropological approaches to the history of ancient Greece. This was most fully manifested in the works that compiled the collection Man and Society in the Ancient World (1998). Our scientists have demonstrated that Russian historians are studying new problems and using new methods of studying Ancient Greece, which are accepted in modern world science.

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wolff. Prolegomena ad Homerum. Halle, 1795.

Natural and climatic conditions, the geographical position of the territory have always influenced the way of life of peoples and the ways of forming social development and, as a result, the originality of civilizations that arose in various regions. Human interaction with environment is one of the most important parts of civilizational development, as a result of which there is both the folding of distinctive socio-psychological character traits in the entire ethnic group, and the creation of a certain picture of the world among its specific representatives. In addition, any society within the framework of civilization has always sought, if possible, to harmonize its relations with the natural environment, which directly affects the forms of management and their results, and indirectly - on all aspects of life, from culture to politics. The influence of geographical conditions at the initial stage of the formation of civilization is especially strong.

The most important role in the formation of ancient Greek civilization was played by sea. Mediterranean Sea, which washes the continents with various geographical conditions and the motley ethnic composition of the population, generally played an important role in the history of mankind. The Mediterranean was one of the regions where many ancient civilizations were born and flourished. This is a zone with a mild subtropical climate, favorable for agriculture. Coastal waters, where coastal navigation was carried out, created best conditions for contacts between the Mediterranean peoples, which contributed to their rapid cultural development.

Especially favorable conditions are the Aegean Sea, which washes the Balkan Peninsula in the west, and Asia Minor in the east. The coastline of the Aegean Sea is indented with numerous bays and gulfs, and the sea is strewn with islands located close to each other. In all of Greece, there is no point on land that is more than 90 kilometers from the sea coast, and there is no point on land on the high seas that is more than 60 kilometers from another land. This allowed already in ancient times sailors on small boats to sail across the sea: moving from island to island, they did not lose sight of the saving land. The Aegean Sea has become a kind of bridge through which culture ancient eastern civilizations came to the peoples of Europe.

Aegean world

Ships of Crete. Drawings from images on stamps

However, even sailing from island to island, when the sailor did not lose sight of the edge of the earth, was considered a very dangerous business. The Greeks were a land people for a long time, and before coming to the Balkans they did not encounter large expanses of water. In ancient Greek, even the common European word for the sea (mare, Merr, etc.) was lost. And the word "thalassa" (i.e., the sea) was borrowed by the aliens from the Carian tribes. They learned from local tribes to build the first small boats. However, at first the Greeks were quite helpless at sea. The danger for them lurked in the underwater rocks and turbulent currents that washed around the numerous peninsulas. Thus, capes Tenar and Maleya in the very south of the Balkan Peninsula were notorious among the ancient peoples, sailing around which often ended in shipwreck.

Another danger to the life of ancient sailors was the winds that blow almost continuously in the Aegean Sea and raise violent storms. Due to storms, the sea was extremely dangerous for navigation from November to February and from July to September. For a long time, going to the open sea during this period was considered reckless. The spring sea, from February to May, was also unsafe for the life of sailors. The autumn months were considered favorable to the sailors - from the end of September to November. In this favorable period of time, having loaded fragile ships with goods, the Greeks, driven, according to the poet Hesiod, by “cruel need” and “evil hunger”, went overseas to trade. So, at the cost of great effort and loss, the Greeks learned to deal with the elements of the sea and became skilled sailors.

Gradually, the Greeks got used to the sea, and it ceased to frighten them. This conquest of the sea had very important consequences for the development of Greek civilization. The sea contributed to the formation of courage, courage, fearlessness, and enterprise among the Greek people. The way of life associated with numerous journeys by sea expanded the horizons of people, stimulated the knowledge of the surrounding world, the assimilation of the cultural achievements of neighboring peoples. Such a person was ready to overcome unexpected difficulties, easily adapted to new conditions. The personification of all these character traits of the ancient Greek was the cunning Odysseus, sung by Homer, a courageous warrior and an experienced navigator who found ways out of seemingly hopeless situations. And even the wrath of the lord of the seas, Poseidon, who had carried the brave Greek on the seas for ten years, turned out to be powerless in front of his courageous character and thirst for life.

Here is how Hesiod describes the conditions of navigation in the Aegean Sea in the poem "Works and Days":

If you want to sail the dangerous sea, then remember:
... It's been fifty days since the solstice,
And the end is coming to the difficult, sultry summer.
This is the very time for sailing: you are not a ship
You will not break, nor will the abyss of the sea swallow people ...
The sea is then safe, and the air is transparent and clear ...
But try to get back as soon as possible:
Do not wait for young wine and autumn showers ...
People often swim in the sea even in the spring.
Just the first leaves on the tips of the branches of fig trees
They will become equal in length to the imprint of a crow's footprint,
At the same time, the sea for swimming will again be available.
... But I do not praise
Swimming this ... It is difficult to protect yourself from trouble with him.
But in their recklessness, people indulge in this ...

(Trans. V. Veresaeva)

In the 5th century BC BC, when fast and reliable ships appeared, the Greeks were already traveling for at least eight months of the year, with the exception of winter. Thus, the Greeks turned into a people of seafarers, and the Aegean became the true cradle of ancient Greek civilization. The sea, connecting with original bridges from the islands of the lands of Hellas and Asia Minor, played a huge role in the assimilation of the achievements of Eastern culture and the formation of civilization in Ancient Greece.

The most convenient "bridge" across the Aegean Sea, which separated Europe and Asia, was the chains of the Cyclades and South Sporades that touched each other. Initially Cyclades, directly adjacent to the Balkan Peninsula, were a narrow mountain range. Subsequently, it was cut by narrow sea straits into a number of islands.

Rhodes ceramics (7th century BC)

Off the northeastern Aegean coast, almost adjacent to the mainland, is the largest and most picturesque of the islands of the Greek archipelago - euboea, whose fertile valleys have always attracted settlers. In the geographical center of the archipelago is a small island Business with. Considered the birthplace of the god Apollo, it became an important religious and cultural center not only for the inhabitants of the Cyclades, but for all Ionian Greeks. Next are the islands. Naxos, where, according to myth, Dionysus met his beloved Ariadne and where the cult of this god was widely revered, and paros, famous for its famous marble. A little further south are volcanic islands. Melos And Santorini(Fera). Representing the top of the crater of the volcano, Santorin after a terrible catastrophe in the middle of the II millennium BC. e. almost completely submerged.

Of the islands near the Asia Minor coast, an important role was played by Samos, known for its variability political life, And Kos with the temple of the god of medicine Asclepius and the school of doctors known throughout the Greek world.

There is a large island in the southeast of the Aegean. Rhodes, famous for worshiping the sun god Helios and active maritime trade. It was a major cultural center with famous schools of orators and sculptors.

Closed the Greek archipelago from the south is a narrow and long island Crete, through which, from ancient times, the achievements of the cultures of the East came to the West. Due to its location between Asia Minor, Africa and Hellas, it became the center of one of the first cultures in the Aegean.

In the northern part of the Aegean, the islands are located mainly along the coast of Asia Minor. Among them stand out Chios, the birthplace of renowned wine and fine marble, and a flourishing lesbos,"beautiful country of wine and songs", the birthplace of the famous poetess Sappho.

Islands in the Thracian Sea Lemnos, Thasos And Samothrace the Greeks arrived rather late.

An even smaller role in the formation of Greek culture and civilization was played by the islands of the Ionian Sea, off the western coast of the Balkan Peninsula. It is the largest but surprisingly resource-poor mountainous island. kefallenia, major islands Kerkyra(since ancient times famous for its sailors) and Lefkada, once rich in forests Zakynthos and small Ithaca- the birthplace of the cunning Odysseus.

The Greeks named their country Hellas. It included three regions: Balkan Greece (which occupied a significant part of the Balkan Peninsula), the western coast of Asia Minor and numerous islands of the Aegean Sea.

Balkan Greece, or mainland, surrounded on three sides by the sea, by nature itself is divided into Northern Greece, Central Greece and Southern Greece.

Northern Greece It is separated from neighboring Macedonia by a mountain range, which in the east is crowned with the highest in Greece, Mount Olympus covered with eternal snows. According to the Greeks, it was the abode of the gods. From the northern frontier chain of mountains to the south stretches the Pindus range, which divides Northern Greece into two regions - Epirus and Thessaly. Hard-to-reach mountainous area Epirus, until the 4th c. BC e. remained semi-wild, located in the west. From here the river Aheloy originates. Here, near Dodona, there was an ancient temple of Zeus with an oracle that predicted the future by the rustle of the leaves of a sacred oak. East of Pindus Thessaly, there is the only vast valley in Greece, surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges. There were favorable conditions for horse breeding. The river Peneus flows through the territory of Thessaly, abounding even in summer. In its lower reaches is the Tempe Valley, which served as the "gateway" to Greece. This valley, with evergreen myrtles and laurels, surrounded by overgrown gloomy forests, severe mountains with peaks directed to the sky, served the Greeks as an example of sublime beauty.

Middle Greece separated from Northern Greece by mountain ranges through which there is only one passage - the narrow Thermopylae Gorge, stretching along the seashore. The territory of this region is washed almost from all sides by the waters of the Corinthian, Saronic and Euboean Gulfs. In the west, there were areas separated by full-flowing Aheloy Acarnania And This oliya, which, like its northern neighbor Epirus, have long remained at a low level of development.

Further east between the Corinthian and Euboean gulfs was located Locris. In the center of Locris fit a tiny Dorida, which once for a short time sheltered a strong tribe of Dorians. Adjacent to them Phocis with the legendary Mount Parnassus, on the slopes of which the sacred Castal spring, dedicated to the muses, originates. In Phokis, in Delphi, in the sanctuary of Apollo, the most famous oracle in Greece was broadcasting.

Further east, on the broad plains, lay a vast region Boeotia, which had the largest area of ​​fertile land and numerous water sources, including the huge Kopaid Lake. In Boeotia is the famous Mount Helikon - the mythological place of residence of the muses.

In the very east Attica, which played the most significant role in the flourishing of the entire ancient civilization, is separated from Boeotia by the mythical mountain range Kitheron. On three sides Attica is washed by the sea. The presence of convenient harbors (Piraeus, Marathon, Eleusinian and Falersky Gulf) contributed to the development of navigation. Most of Attica is cut by mountain ranges: Parnet covered with forests, Pentelik rich in marble, Hymett, where magnificent honey was collected, and Laurius rich in silver ores. Between them lay valleys with stony, infertile soils. The most extensive of them are Eleusinian, where the famous temple of the goddess of fertility Demeter was located in the city of Eleusis, and Athens with the main city of Attica - Athens. Natural conditions (Attica is poor in water) made it possible to cultivate mainly olives and grapes, which yielded the greatest yields on poor stony soils. The inhabitants of Attica never had enough of their own bread, and they imported it. Of the natural resources, it should be noted fine clay from Cape Koliada and Attic "sil" - a golden-yellow coloring matter.

Athenian Acropolis (late 6th - early 5th century BC). Reconstruction

On the isthmus connecting Central and Southern Greece, are located Megara, a strong maritime state, in which Athens in the VI century. BC e. conquered the island of Salamis, located opposite Athens in the Saronic Gulf. The isthmus between the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs, which was called isthm, it was only a few kilometers wide, and through it a portage was arranged for ships. Here was located Corinth- a large trading city, which had harbors in both bays and a powerful fortress towering 500 meters above the trading ports. Behind the Isthm began the peninsula Peloponnese, or Southern Greece.

The Peloponnese was distinguished by such a heavily indented coastline that its outlines were sometimes compared to a plane tree leaf. In the north of the peninsula along the Gulf of Corinth stretches a mountainous Achaia. On the west coast of the Peloponnese, Elis. Here, on the banks of the never-ending Alpheus River, stood the famous temple of Olympian Zeus, where the Greek Olympic Games were held every four years.

In the center of southern Greece was covered with forests and mountains Arcadia, the only region of ancient Greece, surrounded on all sides by mountains. The lack of access to the sea has led to the backlog of this region in economic and cultural development and has led to the life of the population in conditions of subsistence farming. But in ancient poetry, Arcadia, with its unpretentious shepherd life, was sung as an idyllic country, where life, filled with harmony, sincerity of feelings and beauty, flows among round dances, to the sounds of music.

From wooded Arcadia to the southeast, to Cape Tenar, there were powerful mountain ranges of Parnon and Taygetos. The ridges singled out three vast areas inhabited by the Dorians: Argolis, Laconia and Messenia. IN Argolis, in addition to the city of Argos, a stubborn opponent of Sparta, there was also a large city of Epidaurus with the temple of Asclepius, the god of medicine, famous throughout Greece. In the very south of the Peloponnese was located laconic, fertile region in the valley of the Eurotas. Here they gathered high yields, and on the slopes of Taygetus, which abounded with game, they were engaged in hunting. In the center of Laconica was a strict and warlike Sparta. Through the passes of Taygetus it was possible to get into messenia- an area with fertile soils and a hot climate, where date palms even grew. Here flows the most full-flowing river in Greece - Pamis. Messenia, although inhabited by the Dorians, was conquered by Sparta and incorporated into this state. In addition, it should be mentioned Sicyonia- a small area near Achaia, "country of cucumbers."

An integral part of Ancient Greece is also the western coast of Asia Minor, where the Greek regions arose. Ionia And Aeolis. It was from these regions with their populous cities that Greek culture and civilization spread throughout the Mediterranean, and then to the East, all the way to India.

The mild Mediterranean climate, favorable for agriculture, often allowed the inhabitants of Hellas to harvest two crops a year. The weather is ideal for economic activity only from March to June and from September to December. Although icy winds blow almost continuously in winter and scorching heat in summer, rural work on peasant farms was year-round.

Greece appears to us as a mountainous country (mountain ranges occupy up to 80 percent of the territory) with infertile stony soils. There are few valleys, and even there the layer of fertile soils is very thin. In order to grow and harvest crops, the peasant had to remove stones from the fields, bring in fertile land and build retaining walls, otherwise the winter rains would wash away this land.

In addition, farmers faced big problems due to the poverty of Hellas with fresh water. Except for four rivers (Penei, Aheloy, Alpheus and Pamis), all the rest were shallow and dried up in the summer heat. Therefore, in ancient Greece, the sources were given divine honors. There was not enough moisture for the plants, and providing the fields with water, the laborious digging of wells and diversion irrigation ditches was one of the most important tasks for the peasants. Only in Boeotia did they have to take care of the removal of excess water, which, after winter rains, fell on the fields from Lake Copaid.

The lack of fertile lands with the constant growth of the population led to the development of crafts and trade. This was facilitated by the presence in Greece of various minerals. Pottery clay was mined in Attica, Corinth, Euboea, and terracotta was produced in Boeotia. Iron ore was mined in small quantities everywhere, but mainly in Asia Minor. From ancient times, copper mines were located in Cyprus, as well as on the island of Euboea and near the city of Chalkis. Deposits of lead-silver ores were developed in Attica, in the mountains of Lavria and in Thrace, where gold deposits were also discovered. Fine marble was quarried in the Pentelekon mountains in Attica, on the island of Paros and in a number of other places. The raw materials for the craft were also agricultural products: sheep wool, flax. The production of charcoal was necessary for blacksmithing and for heating dwellings with braziers.

The Hellenes are, first of all, hardworking farmers, for whom hard everyday work in the fight against far from merciful nature has become the norm. The natural conditions of the Aegean forced the peasants to constantly look for the most optimal forms of farming, shaped such traits as diligence, enterprise, perseverance. The Greek table was dominated by vegetables, fruits and dairy products (olives, grapes, sheep's cheese), which fully corresponded to the conditions of life in the Mediterranean climate. Such a diet, of course, influenced the formation of the physical type of a person.

Corinthian pottery (6th century BC)

The formation of civilization in Ancient Greece was significantly influenced by another natural factor. The entire territory of Hellas was divided by mountain ranges into many similar ecological regions, the boundaries of which, as a rule, coincided with the boundaries of policies. In the coastal zone they are engaged in fishing, crafts and trade. Next lies a small valley, which has the most favorable conditions for growing cereals. Then the rocky mountain slopes begin, suitable for growing olives and grapes. Finally, mountains rise in which you can graze cattle and hunt. Moreover, not a single type of activity (at least in the initial periods of Greek history) could not ensure the existence of the Hellenes. Therefore, every Greek had to be not only a farmer, but also a fisherman, navigator, merchant, be able to grow bread, and olives, and grapes, make wine, raise livestock, and engage in handicraft and hunting. And all this required from the inhabitant of the Aegean and industriousness, and knowledge, and initiative. But otherwise it was impossible to survive.

Behind the mountain range, on the territory of another policy, there was exactly the same natural environment. Thus, nature itself creates the conditions for the emergence in the history of mankind of an active, active, initiative personality, a special cultural and historical type, which has not yet been in the history of the civilizations of the Ancient World.

In addition, the nature of the Balkan Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea, with evergreen valleys and mountains covered with evergreen vegetation and the sea shimmering in the sun, with waves crashing against coastal cliffs, was distinguished by its amazing beauty and brightness of colors. Its picturesqueness had a huge impact on the formation of the attitude of the ancient Greeks, the education of aesthetic taste and a sense of beauty, which was reflected in the unique works of ancient art. The artistic creativity of the ancient Greeks, according to V. G. Belinsky, personified a vivid example of "a wonderful reconciliation of spirit and nature."

Thus, the Hellenes had to mobilize all their creative energy in order to establish themselves in this difficult world and find ways of harmonious existence with the natural environment. With their painstaking work, they laid the foundations of a new civilization.

The Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea have been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. Since then, more than one wave of immigrants has swept through this territory. The final ethnic map of the Aegean region was formed after the settlement of the ancient Greek tribes.

The Greeks were one of the many peoples who belonged to the Indo-European language family and settled in the vast territories of Europe and Asia. The Aegean was mainly inhabited by four tribal groups who spoke various dialects of the ancient Greek language: Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians and Aeolians. However, already in ancient times they felt their commonality and in legends derived their origin from the king of Hellen, whose sons Dor and Eol and grandsons Ion and Achaeus (children of the third son of Xuthus) were considered the founders of the main tribal associations. Over time, by the name of the legendary king, the ancient Greeks began to call their country - Hellas.

Achaeans, penetrated the territory of Balkan Greece at the end of the III millennium BC. e., in the Bronze Age, were the first tribal group of ancient Greeks who settled in the Aegean.

At the end of the II millennium BC. e. Dorians(apparently, the first to master iron), some of the Achaeans were exterminated, subjugated or assimilated, and the rest were ousted from the fertile plains of the Peloponnese. In the first millennium BC. e. Achaeans settled in the mountains of Arcadia, Pamphylia, in the south of Asia Minor and in Cyprus. The Dorians occupied the most convenient areas of the Peloponnese for living: Laconia, Messenia and Argolis, as well as Doris, the southern part of the Cyclades and Spor hell, the island of Crete and the south of Caria in Asia Minor. In the rest of the Peloponnese (except Arcadia), as well as in the central and western regions of Central Greece, dialects related to Dorian were spoken.

On Ionian the dialect and its variant, Attic, were spoken in Attica, on the island of Euboea and the islands of the central Aegean, as well as in Ionia, a region on the western coast of Asia Minor.

Aeolians lived in Boeotia, Thessaly, on the northern islands of the Aegean Sea and in the region of Aeolis in Asia Minor.

In the Aegean, in addition to the Greeks, other peoples also lived - Pelasgians, Lelegs, Carians (small tribes of the pre-Greek population); Macedonians and Thracians lived in the north of the Balkan Peninsula, and Illyrians in the northwest. However, in the course of historical development, thanks to close economic and cultural ties, the differences between tribes and nationalities were gradually erased and a koine - a single common Greek language, in which all dialects of the ancient Greek language were dissolved.

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Andreev Yu.V. Aegean world: Natural environment and rhythms of cultural genesis. M., 1995.

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Ilyinskaya L.S. Legends and Archeology: The Ancient Mediterranean. M., 1988.

KazanskyN. N. Dialects of the ancient Greek language. L., 1983.

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TronskyI. M. Questions of language development in ancient society. L., 1973.

CartledgeP. The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford, 1993.

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Sallares R. The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World. L., 1991.

Geographical framework of the Greek world. Periodization and chronology of the history of Ancient Greece

Geogr. Framework: Geographically, Ancient Greece is a combination of its three parts: the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula (from Mount Olympus in the north to Cape Tenar in the south), the numerous islands of the Aegean Sea, which in the southern part “close” with the island of Crete, and a narrow coastal strip in the western part of Malaya Asia. In the era of the Great Greek colonization (VIII - VI centuries BC), the Greeks settled in the vast expanses of the coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In the west, numerous Greek colonies appeared in southern Italy, on the island of Sicily, on the western coast of the Adriatic, in the south of Gaul (modern France) and in northeastern Iberia (modern Spain). In the northeast direction, Greek colonization was first aimed at the development of the Thracian coast and the shores of the Hellespont Strait, connecting the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The most famous colony in the area was Byzantium, which became Constantinople in the 4th century AD, and Istanbul in the 15th century. Through the straits, the Greeks entered the Black Sea and founded dozens of new cities on its coast, most of which still exist. In a southerly direction, the Greeks managed to gain a foothold in the Cyrenaica region, on the Libyan coast west of Egypt. As a result of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the Greeks penetrated far to the East, up to the western territories. ancient india. All these territories became the place of development of the Greek civilization and are the object of study within the framework of the history of Ancient Greece.

Periodization: 3 stages

1) early class (Crete - Mycenaean) - 2 thousand BC

A) the chronology of the Minoan period

1. raneminoan period = 30-23 in BC (tribal relations)

2. Middle Minoan 22-18 centuries (period of old palaces)

3) late Minoan 17-12 (period of new palaces)

B) the chronology of mainland Greece

1) Early Eladian 30-21cc

2) Middle Helladic 20-17th centuries (disintegration of tribal relations)

3) Late Helladic 16-12

2) Polis (the formation and flourishing of policies) 11-4 centuries BC

A) Homeric 11-9 (tribal relations in Greece)

B) Archaic 8-6 (formers of the policy)

C) Classic 15-4 (the heyday of the ancient Greek civilization and the crisis in the development of the Greek polis)

3) Hellenistic end 4 - early 1st century BC (conquest by the Greeks of the powers of the images of the Hellenistic states)

A) Eastern campaigns of A. Macedon and the image of the Hellenistic state system (30th 4th century - 80th 3rd century)

B) further development of policies (80 e 3 - ser 2c)

C) the crisis of the Hellenistic system and the conquest by Rome (mid 2nd century - 1st century BC)

Sources and historiography on the history of Ancient Greece

Sources: At the disposal of modern researchers there are numerous sources of the most different categories. First of all, these are written materials (historical works, works of fiction and scientific literature, journalism, speeches of orators, legal documents, letters, business documents, etc.), monuments of material culture, mainly obtained during archaeological excavations (city ruins, remains of fortresses structures, public buildings, residential buildings, tombs, temples, tools, weapons, everyday items, etc.), material of ethnographic observations (the study of ancient customs, institutions, rituals), a large number of various inscriptions, coins. Information about the distant past can be obtained by analyzing the structure of the vocabulary of the ancient Greek language and the traditions of oral folk art (recorded folklore materials).

Sources on the history of Crete and Achaean Greece, II millennium BC. e. The few sources of this time are divided into three main categories: written monuments written in the B syllabary, data from archaeological excavations of cities and settlements, and information on the history of the 2nd millennium BC. e., preserved in the works of Greek authors of a later time.

Tablets written in letter B were found during excavations in Crete by A. Evans in 1901, but only in 1953 did the English scientist M. Ventris decipher the incomprehensible language of the inscriptions. Currently, several thousand tablets are known, written with the letter B. The vast majority of the tablets date from the 14th-12th centuries. BC e. The inscriptions are very brief and are mainly business accounting documents. In addition to the tablets found in the palace archives, inscriptions have been preserved, consisting of abbreviations of individual words, applied with paint or scratched on the walls of clay vessels, individual letters on seals placed on clay corks and tags. Archaeological excavations provide a wide variety of information about material culture. The most important finds were discovered during excavations of vast palace complexes: in Knossos and Phaistos on about. Crete, Mycenae and Pylos in the Peloponnese. Some information about the history of the Achaean and Cretan kingdoms is contained in the late Greek tradition. In the poems of Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey", compiled in the IX-VIII centuries. BC e., not only living memories of the recent past, in particular the events of the Trojan War, but also entire songs and legends composed in the Achaean era have been preserved. In the works of Greek authors of the 5th - 4th centuries. BC e. (Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristotle) ​​and subsequent centuries (Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias) preserved some vague memories of the glorious past of the Greeks, the power of the Cretan king Minos, the creation of a vast power by him, and the high culture of that time. Quite diverse, although very difficult to study material about the history and culture, customs and religion of the Greeks of the II millennium BC, e. contained in numerous legends and myths of the Greeks about gods and heroes.

Sources on the history of archaic and classical Greece. The total number and variety of sources for studying the history of Greece VIII-TV centuries. BC e. increases sharply. Written sources of various genres are presented with special completeness.

The earliest written sources were the epic poems of Homer - "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Valuable information about agriculture, hard peasant labor and rural life can be obtained from the poem "Works and Days" by the Boeotian poet Hesiod (the turn of the VIII-VII centuries BC). He also owns another poem - "Theogony", which describes in detail the religious views of the Greeks, the origin of the gods, their genealogy and relationships.

To study the socio-political struggle that unfolded in Greek society in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e., important data are given in the political elegies of Greek poets - Archilochus from Paros, Solon from Athens, Theognis from Megara.

One of the most important sources are the writings of ancient Greek historians. The first Greek historians were the so-called logographs, of which the most famous are Hecateus of Miletus (540-478 BC) and Hellanicus of Mitylene (480-400 BC). Logographs described the ancient history of native cities. The writings of the logographers have survived only in small fragments.

The first actual historical study was the work of Herodotus from Halicarnassus (485-425 BC). Herodotus' work is devoted to the history of the Greco-Persian wars and consists of 9 books, which in the III century. BC e. were named after 9 muses. Actually, the last five books are devoted to the history of the wars themselves (the presentation was brought up to 479 BC), and the first four books describe the history of individual countries, peoples, cities of Asia Minor, Babylonia, Media, Egypt, Scythian tribes, Greek cities of the Balkan Greece., called in ancient times the "father of history."

Other outstanding work Greek historical thought was the work of the Athenian historian Thucydides (about 460-396 BC), dedicated to the events of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). The work of Thucydides consists of 8 books, they outline the events of the Peloponnesian War from 431 to 411 BC. e.

A diverse literary legacy was left by Thucydides' younger contemporary, historian and publicist Xenophon of Athens (430-355 BC). In his Greek History, he continued the work of Thucydides from the events of 411. BC e. and brought him to the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC. e. Xenophon also wrote other works: several essays on economic topics (treatises "Economics", "On Incomes"), a journalistic treatise "On the State Structure of the Lacedaemonians", "Kyropedia" ("Education of Cyrus").

A lot of information of a diverse nature is contained in the numerous speeches of Athenian orators of the 4th century BC that have come down to our time. BC e. - Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Hyperides, etc. The earliest of these speeches by Lysias date back to the end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century. BC e., the latest belong to Hyperides and Dinarchus (20s of the 4th century BC).

The famous Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle own works of the most diverse content. Among the writings of Plato (427-347 BC), his extensive treatises "State" and "Laws", written in the last period of his life, are of the greatest importance. The work of the greatest Greek thinker Aristotle is striking in its diversity. He owns treatises on logic and ethics, rhetoric and poetics, meteorology and astronomy, zoology and physics, which are informative sources. However, the most valuable works on the history of Greek society in the 4th c. BC e. are his writings on the essence and forms of the state - "Politics", in which he summarized the gigantic material of the political history of 158 different Greek policies, and a special treatise on the state structure of Athens, one of the largest Greek policies with developed forms of government, "The Athenian Poured" .

Rich information about the internal and external situation of Athens during the Peloponnesian War and at the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. give numerous comedies (11 comedies have been preserved) by Aristophanes (450-388 BC).

Epigraphic sources occupy an equally important place in the complex of historical sources on the history of Ancient Greece. These are inscriptions on stone (stone slabs, walls of buildings, steles, statues, etc.), ceramics, metal plates. The inscriptions were different - from a few letters to hundreds of lines. However, there are few large inscriptions (several dozen lines), the main part of the epigraphic material contains a text of several lines.

Huge and growing from year to year, the material of archaeological excavations is the most important source of knowledge about the most diverse aspects of the life of Greek society.

Sources on the history of Greece in the Hellenistic period. The number of sources relating to this time increases compared to the previous period, new categories of sources appear, for example, documents written on papyri, which were discovered during excavations in Egypt.

Of the historical writings, the works of Polybius and Diodorus are of the greatest importance. The work of Polybius details the history of the Greek and Roman world from 280 to 146 BC. e. In the "Historical Library" of Diodorus Siculus (I century BC), consisting of 40 books, books of the XVIII-XX are completely preserved, in which, in addition to the history of classical Greece (V-IV centuries BC), they describe in detail the struggle of the Diadochi, the history of the reign of the tyrant Agathocles in Sicily and other events of early Hellenistic history (before 30 BC).

The richest information of the most diverse content is given in Strabo's "Geography" (64 BC - c. 23/24 AD).

Of great value to early Hellenistic history are the writings of Plutarch, especially his biographies of major Greek and Roman politicians of the 3rd-1st centuries. BC e.

Unique in its richness of material for recreating the history of Greek culture of all eras, including archaic, classical and Hellenistic, is the work of Pausanias (II century AD) "Description of Hellas".

Hellenistic history was the object of constant attention of historians of the Roman period, with particular interest aroused by the history of the reign of Philip II and his illustrious son Alexander the Great. The most famous are the “History of Philip” by Pompey Trogus (end of the 1st century BC) in 44 books (the work is preserved in the abridgement of Justin, author of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD), “The History of Alexander the Great” by Curtius Rufus (I century AD), "Alexander's Anabasis" by Flavius ​​Arrian (II century AD).

Appian, Roman historian of the 2nd century. n. e., wrote the history of the state of the Seleucids, Macedonia of the Pontic kingdom.

Valuable sources on various aspects of the life of Hellenistic societies are works of scientific and fiction literature. These are, first of all, treatises on economics, in particular the treatise attributed to Aristotle (it bears the name of the pseudo-Aristotelian "Economics", the end of the 4th century BC), and the treatise "Economics" belonging to Philodemus (1st century BC. ). Of great interest are the works of Aristotle's student Theophrastus (370-288 BC), his treatise "On Plants" and the treatise "Characters". Of the works of fiction, everyday comedies by the Athenian playwright Menander (342-292 BC) are important, a collection of small poems by Theocritus (III century BC), dedicated to the glorification of a simple quiet life, far from the worries of the world, which received titled Idyll.

There are numerous epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological sources on the history of Hellenism. Tens of thousands of the most diverse inscriptions have been found from almost all areas of the Greek world of the most diverse content - from legislative acts to student exercises.

A new category of sources for the study of Hellenistic history, especially the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, are the numerous papyri texts. To date, over 250 thousand different papyrus finds are known

Historiography: Russian historiography. The study of the history of Ancient Greece in Russia began in the 18th century. Experts in Greek history were M.V. Lomonosov, A.N. Radishchev, who often used in their writings many of the information of ancient Greek authors. Radishchev owns a translation into Russian of the work of one of the prominent French enlighteners G. Mably "Reflections on Ancient Greek History" (1773). In his work "Historical Song" he gave a sketch of the main events of Greek history. A prominent European-scale specialist was the German scientist G. Bayer invited to work in Russia. He published a number of works on the history of the Achaean Union, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the relationship between the Greek colonies of the Northern Black Sea region and the Scythian tribes.

I. Martynov in the 20s years XIX V. published in 26 volumes translated into Russian by many ancient Greek authors. N. Gnedich and V. Zhukovsky presented the Russian public with magnificent translations of Homer's wonderful poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey".

Innovative was the work of Vasilevsky " Political reform and the social movement in ancient Greece during its decline" (1869). F.F. Sokolov, in small articles, clarified many different dates and events of Greek history in the 5th-3rd centuries. BC e. and firmly entered the scientific community.

V.V. Latyshev undertook a major publication in 3 volumes of all Greek and Latin inscriptions found in the Northern Black Sea region (1885-1916). A versatile researcher was S.A. Zhebelev. His main works are devoted to the study of those periods of Greek history. He recreated the history of Hellenistic Athens (1898) and the history of Balkan Greece in Roman times, I-III centuries. n. e. (1903). The object of scientific interests of one of the largest Russian scientists V. P. Buzeskul was the history of Athenian democracy. In the monograph "Pericles" (1889), Buzeskul gave the most detailed analysis in Russian science political activity leader of Athenian democracy. In The History of Athenian Democracy (1909) V.P. Buzeskul studied the genesis of Athenian democracy, its structure, functioning and showed a great impact on the Greek world.

F.F. Zelinsky was actively engaged in the study of various aspects of Greek religion and culture. The result of these studies was the publication of the four-volume work "From the Life of Ideas" (1905-1907, 1922).

An important place in the development of a new concept of ancient Greek history in the 1920s was occupied by the studies of A.I. Tyumenev. In several monographs (“Essays on the Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece”, 1920-1922, vol. I-HI; “Did Capitalism Exist in Ancient Greece?”, 1923; “Introduction to the Economic History of Ancient Greece”, 1923), he proposed a new understanding of socio-economic relations in Ancient Greece, determined the specifics of the ancient Greek economy, class and social structure. The general development of the history of ancient Greece as a slave society was undertaken by B.C. Sergeev and S.I. Kovalev in textbooks for historical faculties public universities. Valuable works on socio-economic issues were published by O.O. Kruger (“General outline of the socio-economic history of Hellenism”, 1934; “Agricultural production in Hellenistic Egypt”, 1935), R.V. Schmidt (on mining and metalworking production, 1935; on the situation of penestes in Thessaly). In numerous works by S.Ya. Lurie posed various problems of the political history of Attica and Greek science (a series of monographs "Democritus", "Archimedes", "Herodotus", "Essays on the History of Ancient Science").

In the 1960s and 1970s, specialists paid special attention to two cardinal problems of general Greek history - slavery and the polis. On the first problem, a series of monographs "Research on the history of slavery in the ancient world" was published. As part of this series, a monograph by Ya.A. Lentsman "Slavery in Mycenaean and Homeric Greece" (1963), collections "Slavery on the periphery of the ancient world" (1968), "Slavery in the Hellenistic states of the III-I centuries. BC e." (1969), monograph by K.K. Zelyin and M.K. Trofimova “Forms of dependence in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic period” (1969), work by A.I. Dovatur “Slavery in Attica in the VI-V centuries. BC e." (1980). A large place in the 60-70s was also given to various aspects of the polis organization, the ancient Greek policy. famous ending research work for the study of the ancient Greek policy by the mid-80s was the release of the consolidated work "Ancient Greece" (1983, vols. I-II).

According to the history of Achaean Greece, the study of which acquired a special scope after the decipherment of Linear writing B and the reading of written documents of the 2nd millennium BC. e., several serious works were published: S.Ya. Lurie "Language and culture of Mycenaean Greece", 1957; Ya.A. Lentsman "Slavery in Mycenaean and Homeric Greece", 1963; T.V. Blavatsky "Achaean Greece", 1966; "Greek society of the II millennium BC. e.", 1976, etc., in which the most important aspects of ancient Greek history were considered and different points of view were expressed on a number of specific issues.

Valuable works on the history of Greece of the classical period were published by K.K. Kazamanova (“Essays on the socio-economic history of Crete in the 5th-4th centuries BC”, 1964). The study of the political history and political thought of the ancient Greeks was carried out by A.K. Berger (“The Political Thought of Ancient Greek Democracy”, 1966) and A.I. Dovatur (Politics and Politics of Aristotle, 1965).

A special direction in research was the development of various problems of the development of social thought of the ancient Greeks of the archaic and classical times. Here it should be noted the work of E.D. Frolov "Torch of Prometheus. Essays on ancient social thought” (1991).

The culture and society of the countries of Eastern Hellenism became the subject of research by S.V., Novikov “Southwestern Iran in Antiquity. From Alexander the Great to Ardashir” (1989) and I. R. Pichikyan “Culture of Bactria. Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods” (1991). A well-known generalization of regional studies on the Hellenistic time was the collective monograph Hellenism. Economy, politics, culture" (1991).

The foundations of Russian Scythology were laid by M.I. Rostovtsev (“Hellenicity and Iranism in the South of Russia”, 1918, and “Scythia and the Bosporus”, 1925). Then the study of the history and culture of the Scythians was continued by such venerable scientists as B.N. Grakov (“Kamenskoye settlement on the Dnieper”, “Scythians”, 1971), A.I. Terenozhkin (“Cimmerians”, 1976, and “Scythia of the 7th-4th centuries BC in collaboration with V.A. Ilyinskaya, 1983), M.I. Artamonov (“Treasures of the Scythian mounds”, 1966; “Cimmerians and Scythians”, 1974), A.P. Smirnov ("Scythians", 1966), D.S. Raevsky (“Model of the World of Scythian Culture”, 1985).

Foreign historiography of Ancient Greece of the XX century.

The most famous publications were the 12-volume "Cambridge Ancient History" (1928-1938), "General History" in 13 books edited by G. Glotz (1923-1939) and the 5-volume work "Peoples and Civilizations. General History, edited by A. Alphan and F. Sagnac (1930-1937). After the end of the Second World War in the 1950s and 1960s, several similar publications appeared in different countries ah of Europe: "The General History of Civilization" edited by Krause in France, "History of the World" in 10 volumes in Switzerland, "Fischer's World History" in 37 volumes in Germany, "History of Humanity. Cultural and Scientific Development”, published under the auspices of UNESCO. An in-depth analysis of the ancient Greek economy was also given by the prominent French historians J. Tuten (“Ancient Economy”, 1927) and G. Glotz (“Labor in Ancient Greece. History of the Greek Economy”, 1920), the German scientist F. Heichelheim (“Economic History ancient world", 1938). In the works of the Dutchman X. Bolkenstein "The Greek Economy of the Golden Age" (1923; 1958), the English scientist X. Mitchell's "Economy of Greece" (1940), the modernization of economic relations is already spoken quite moderately, the well-known primitiveness of the economy is emphasized.

Political history Greece is being explored in several ways. First of all, this is the study of various aspects of Athenian democracy (P. Kloshe, K. Mosse, A. Jones, R. Meigs, and others. The number of works on the history of Sparta has increased (H. Mitchell, J. Huxley, W. Forrest).

A generalization of many specific studies of Greek statehood are the works of J. Larsen "Representative government among the Greeks and Romans" (1953) and V. Ehrenberg "The Greek state" (1960, 1969, vol. 1-11). English and American historians J. Saint Croix (works on the history of the Peloponnesian War, "Karl Marx and the History of Classical Antiquity"), P. Cartledge (works on early Sparta), R. Pedgag ("Classes and Society of Classical Greece"), M. Oisin ("The Class Struggle in Ancient Greece") explore the cardinal problems of ancient Greek history, recognizing the important role of the mode of production in the development of socio-political structures, social contradictions in ancient Greek society.

In the 1980s and 1990s, research was carried out in various periods, in many aspects and in almost all regions of the Greek world. Based on these materials, a 4-volume publication "Greater Greece" was carried out, edited by P. Caratelli (1985-1990). According to the results of international congresses devoted to the study of the history of the Peloponnese, held in the 80s in the city of Kalamita, 3 volumes of modern research were published (1987-1988).

Fundamental research appeared: the works of O. Rackham on the historical ecology of Boeotia (1983), the work of M. Hansen “Demography and Democracy” (1986), the generalizing work of R. Sallares “Ecology in the Ancient Greek World” (1991), J. Thurgood “Man and Mediterranean Forest" (1981), R. Osborne "Classical Landscape" (1987). In addition, environmental issues are becoming increasingly important general works illuminating different periods ancient Greek history, such as, for example, the book by Snodgrass "The Archeology of Greece" (1987), the collection "The Greek City", published under the editorship of O. Murray, the work of M, Jameson on agriculture in Ancient Greece (1988,1991), the work of P Garney "Hunger and food production in the Greco-Roman world" (1988) and a number of other studies. Apparently, this direction in the historiography of ancient Greece will prevail in the coming years.

Of the general works published in recent years, one can note a series of monographs by leading experts on different time periods, which together give a modern idea of ​​the history of Greece from the end of the Mycenaean civilization to the end of the Hellenistic era (O. Murray. Early Greece, 1993; J. Davis, Democracy and Classical Greece, 1993; F. Walbank, The Hellenistic World, 1992), published in a single series under the general editorship of Oswin Murray.

The history of Ancient Greece studies the process of emergence, development, functioning of the ancient Greek civilization in the basin of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, which has a special socio-economic structure, developed political institutions, and a rich culture. However, the origin of the ancient Greek civilization took place on the Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea.

Geographic scope

Geographically, Ancient Greece is a combination of its three parts: the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula (from Mount Olympus in the north to Cape Tenar in the south), the numerous islands of the Aegean Sea, which in the southern part “close” with the island of Crete, and a narrow coastal strip in the western part of Malaya Asia. In the era of the Great Greek colonization (VIII - VI centuries BC), the Greeks settled in the vast expanses of the coast of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In the west, numerous Greek colonies appeared in southern Italy, on the island of Sicily, on the western coast of the Adriatic, in the south of Gaul (modern France) and in northeastern Iberia (modern Spain). In the northeast direction, Greek colonization was first aimed at the development of the Thracian coast and the shores of the Hellespont Strait, connecting the Black and Mediterranean Seas. The most famous colony in the area was Byzantium, which became Constantinople in the 4th century AD, and Istanbul in the 15th century. Through the straits, the Greeks entered the Black Sea and founded dozens of new cities on its coast, most of which still exist. In a southerly direction, the Greeks managed to gain a foothold in the Cyrenaica region, on the Libyan coast west of Egypt. As a result of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the Greeks penetrated far to the East, up to the western territories of Ancient India. All these territories became the place of development of the Greek civilization and are the object of study within the framework of the history of Ancient Greece.

Periodization of the history of ancient Greece

The history of ancient Greece is usually divided into several stages and periods. The first stage (III-II millennium BC) is called Crete-Mycenaean. Since at that time there were two main centers for the development of civilization, Crete and Balkan Greece, there is a periodization for each of these centers: early, middle and late periods are distinguished. This is followed by the polis stage, during which the actual formation of the model of society, which is usually called antique, takes place. The first period of this stage (XI - IX centuries BC) is called the period of the dark ages or the Homeric period. This is followed by the archaic period (VIII - VI centuries BC), during which the structure-forming element of ancient Greek civilization, the polis, is formed. The classical period (5th - the end of the 4th centuries BC) is the time of the heyday of all the constituent parts of the ancient Greek civilization and the time of the crisis of the polis model of the development of the Greek polis. Then the 300-year-old era of Hellenism begins (the end of the 4th - the end of the 1st centuries BC), which originates from the campaigns of Alexander the Great and ends in the collapse of the world of the Hellenistic states, the subordination of the western territories to Rome and the entry of the eastern territories into the Parthian kingdom.

Ethnic history of ancient Greece

The ethnic history of ancient Greece is quite complex. Until the end of the III millennium BC. e. the main population of Balkan Greece was the Pelasgians, Leleges, Carians; Crete until the second half of the 2nd millennium was inhabited by the Minoans. Greek tribes (Achaeans) invaded the territory of Balkan Greece at the end of III - beginning of II millennium BC. e. The ancient peoples were partially forced out of this territory, partially assimilated. In the second half of the XV century. BC e. after the death of the Cretan state, the Achaeans also landed on this island. At the end of II millennium BC. e. Greece was invaded by new Greek tribes - the Dorians. From the beginning of the 1st millennium, the Greeks, remaining a single people, were divided into four main groups using their own dialect: Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians. The dialectal features of these groups persisted until the Hellenistic era. Active contacts of the Greeks with other peoples, primarily with the peoples of the ancient Eastern states, settlement during colonization in the vast expanses of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and close relations with local tribes (Thracians, Scythians, Gauls, Iberians and others) led to the fact that the concept of Hellenes was associated more with belonging to Greek culture than with ethnic origin. In connection with the emergence of the policy, civil society, the status of a citizen of a particular Greek state comes to the fore.

The history of Ancient Greece has an extensive source base. These are primarily written sources. From the Crete-Mycenaean era, tablets written in syllabary A (in Crete) and B (in Balkan Greece) have been preserved. The syllabary A has not yet been deciphered, and the syllabary B was deciphered in 1953 by the English scientist M. Ventris. These plates are business reporting documents. These documents, together with archeological data, are the object of research in a special direction in the history of Ancient Greece - mycenology. An important but very complex source are Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". They are also studied by a special group of philologists and historians. In the 19th century, the so-called "Homeric question" was one of the central problems of antiquity. Modern researchers deal with such issues as the specifics of reflection real life in such a genre as the heroic epic, the correlation of the literary text and archaeological material. For the archaic era, important sources are the poems of Hesiod and the Greek lyricists (Archiloch, Theognis, Solon, Alcaeus, Sappho and others). Modern scientists, with the help of their works, are trying to solve issues of the specifics of the social psychology of the archaic period. History emerges in Greece as a science. The historical works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, which have come down to us in full, fragments of the works of other historians give a holistic, although sometimes subjective picture of the events of the archaic and mainly classical periods. Great importance have the works of late writers, Hellenistic and Roman times: Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias, Athenaeus, Aulus Helius and many others. They conveyed to us the ancient tradition, most of which has been lost. Naturally, clarifying the problem of the reliability of the works of ancient authors is one of the tasks of specialists in the history of Ancient Greece. The written sources also include the speeches of Greek orators, scientific and philosophical works, works of tragedians and comedians.

A special discipline is Greek epigraphy, which deals with all issues related to inscriptions on hard materials (stone, metal, ceramics) that have survived to this day and were found, as a rule, as a result of excavations. These inscriptions are devoted to various aspects of the public, religious and private life of the Greeks. Working with this category of sources requires special professional training. The prospect of this discipline lies in the fact that in our time, as a result of the work of archaeologists, there is a constant replenishment of this category of sources, although not as intensively as in the 19th century. By the beginning of the 21st century, about 100 thousand Greek inscriptions were known, and modern computer technologies provide fast processing of epigraphic material. Another specialized discipline is ancient numismatics, which deals with numerous Greek and Roman coins. At an early stage, numismatists were mainly concerned with the problems of systematization and classification of numismatic material, the use of coins to illustrate political events, and the study of certain aspects of the Greek religion. Now, coins and treasure complexes allow solving important problems of the Greek economy, identifying the specifics of monetary circulation in different regions and in different periods, and exploring the financial and monetary policy of the Greek states. Papyrology is also a specialized discipline. She is engaged in the study of papyri found in Egypt and created in the Hellenistic era and in Roman times. Although the documentary material of these two periods predominates among these papyri, among the texts found there are works of earlier times. So thanks to the discovery of papyrus in late XIX century, Aristotle's work "The Athenian Politia" became known. The work of epigraphers, numismatists and papyrologists is increasingly international in nature, and many projects are carried out by groups of scientists from different countries.

Of great importance for the study of the history of Ancient Greece are material monuments that are discovered as a result of archaeological excavations. Since the 30s of the 19th century, archaeological excavations have been carried out in Greece. From the very beginning scientists from different countries (France, England, Germany, USA and others) took part in them. The largest archaeological excavations were carried out in Athens, Olympia, Delphi, Delos, on the western coast of Asia Minor (Turkey). Remains of remarkable architectural monuments were unearthed, numerous household items and art monuments were found, finds of Greek ceramics were especially significant in quantitative terms. Excavations were carried out in almost all places of residence of the Greeks: in southern Italy and Sicily, southern France, in the Black Sea region. In the Northern Black Sea region, which was part of the Russian state, Russian archaeologists were excavating. As a result of the excavations of G. Schliemann in Mycenae in the 70s of the XIX century, Mycenaean Greece was discovered. A. Evans' excavations at Knossos on Crete in 1900 led to the discovery of the Minoan civilization. Excavations continued actively throughout the 20th century. Particularly significant were the excavations of the Greek scientist S. Marinatos on the island of Thera, who discovered the remains ancient city on the territory of Europe, which died as a result of a volcanic eruption 3.5 thousand years ago. Modern methods of archaeological research, new progressive technology make it possible to obtain much more scientific information during excavations than before.

The main stages of the study of ancient Greece

The cultural and historical heritage of Ancient Greece has never been forgotten. Greek culture became an important component of the Mediterranean culture that arose in the Roman Empire. The ancient heritage, the written tradition was preserved in the Byzantine state. In Western Europe, interest in ancient Greek culture and history arose in the 15th century during the Renaissance. However, the real scientific study of ancient Greece begins in late XVIII- the first half of the 19th century. The works of I. Winkelmann and F. Wolf aroused interest in Greek history in society and among specialists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the German school of antiquity was the most influential. The works of A. Böck laid the foundation for the study of the economic life of the Greeks. He also initiated the scientific publication of Greek inscriptions. I. Droysen was the first to systematize the complex historical material of late Greek history and for the first time introduced the concept of the “epoch of Hellenism”. E. Curtius carried out the classical excavations of Olympia and created one of the best generalizing works on the history of Greece. Of great importance for understanding theoretical problems were the works of Ed. Meyer, K. Bucher, Yu. Beloch, R. Poelman. Among French historians, one should note A. Vallon, who wrote a generalizing work on slavery in antiquity, and F. de Coulange, who formulated the idea of ​​the policy as a civil community. Founder of the scientific school of studying the history of Ancient Greece in Russian state became professor of St. Petersburg and Moscow universities M.S. Kutorga. He mainly dealt with the history of the Athenian state; his works were published in Western Europe. F.F. Sokolov laid the foundation for the study of epigraphic sources and brought up a whole generation of Russian scholars. Of the pre-revolutionary antiquity specialists, one can note V.V. Latysheva, M.I. Rostovtseva, M.M. Khvostov, V.P. Buzeskula, S.A. Zhebeleva, F.F. Zelinsky. Of great importance were the translations into Russian of the main works of Greek authors, carried out by F.G. Mishchenko. Russian scientists were especially active in studying the Greek states in the Northern Black Sea region. In the period between the two World Wars, multi-volume generalizing works on world history were published in the West, among which the Cambridge Ancient History should be noted, several volumes in it were devoted to Ancient Greece. At the same time, a school of Soviet historians was taking shape in the USSR, which was characterized by works primarily on socio-economic issues. Works by V.S. Sergeeva, A.I. Tyumeneva, S.I. Kovaleva, S.Ya. Lurie. A new stage in the development of antiquity began in the second half of the 20th century. After M. Ventris deciphered the syllabic writing A, a special direction arose that studied the history of Greece in the 2nd millennium BC. e. - mycenology. In Western historiography, the work of the English scientist M. Finley should be singled out, who in his numerous works opposed the modernization of ancient history, especially in the field of economics. This direction found its expression in the works of E. Ville, C. Starr and some scientists. The problems of ancient slavery were dealt with in Germany by a group of specialists headed by J. Vogt. The works of K. Mosse, R. Meiggs, J. Davis, M. Hansen and many others were devoted to the study of questions of the history of the Athenian state and democracy. The current period is characterized by the policy of cooperation between the work of Western scientists, the holding of international conferences on various issues, the publication of numerous thematic collections. A special place in European antiquity is occupied by a scientific center in Denmark (headed by M. Hansen), which deals with one of the central problems of Greek history - the study of all aspects of the policy. Most of the directions in the study of the history of Ancient Greece are represented in our country. The works of Yu.V. Andreeva. T.V. Blavatsky studied the history of Achaean Greece. The problems of the policy and its formation are reflected in the works of G. A. Koshelenko, E.D. Frolova, A.I. Zaitsev, V.P. Yaylenko. Various aspects of the history of the Athenian state are devoted to the works of K.K. Zelyina, V.M. Strogetsky, S.G. Karpyuk, I.E. Surikov; social and political thought of the ancient Greeks - the work of A.K. Berger, A.I. Dovatura, E.D. Frolova. Various aspects of the crisis of the Greek polis are reflected in the studies of L.M. Gluskina, L.P. Marinovich, V.I. Isaeva. The Russian school of antiquity continued to be the world's leading school in the study of the history of the Greek city-states of the Northern Black Sea region. Over the past two decades, domestic antiquity has suffered significant losses, and excavation activity has sharply decreased. However, at the same time, cooperation with Western colleagues intensified, domestic scientists began to take a greater part in international projects.

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