Classical antiquity differs from previous and subsequent epochs through common and consistent cultural traditions, the influence of which continues to be influential in many subject areas right up to modern times. It covers the history of ancient Greece, Hellenism and the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire politically unified the Mediterranean from the 1st century AD. Rome's cultural influence was primarily felt in the western part of the empire, while in the east the Greek-Hellenistic tradition (Byzantium) continued alongside oriental traditions until it was pushed back in the course of Islamic expansion (from 632 AD).
In a broader sense, antiquity also includes the history of the ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria), the Iranian region (Elam, Media, Persia) and Asia Minor (Phoenicia, Israel, Aram-Damascus). around the beginning of writing around 3500 BC. BC began. This larger period of about 3500 B.C. BC to the end of antiquity is preferably referred to as antiquity to distinguish it from the narrower concept of antiquity limited to the Greco-Roman world, or it is used in relation to the Middle East until its incorporation into the Macedonian-Greek sphere of influence under Alexander the Great ( around 330 BC) spoken by the Ancient Near East.
Alongside the painter Apelles and the philosopher Xenophanes, the poet Mimnermos (around 640 – 570 BC) was probably the best-known citizen of the city of Colophon, which was booming in the 6th century BC.
At the time of the Greeks and Romans, who saw their scope for action primarily in the Mediterranean region, originally Indo-European tribes were able to spread in northern Europe, which could hardly be assigned by the educated Mediterranean cultures of the Greeks and Romans.
On their raids and migrations, individual tribes of the Celts advanced across the Balkans to ancient Greece in 279 BC, where they raided and plundered Delphi, among other things.
Born and raised in Klazomenai, Heracleides (exact biographical dates are not known) probably came to Susa as an interpreter or doctor at the beginning of the reign of the Persian great king Darius II as part of an Athenian delegation for peace negotiations after the lost war at his court.
One of the most important figures of Greek antiquity was the philosopher and poet Xenophanes, who was born in Colophon around 570 BC. As was usual for artists of the time, the poet could not stand the monotony of a city for long.
In our articles about the ancient city of Kolophon (located about 35 kilometers from Izmir on the way to Kusadasi) and its important citizens, we have already reported about the outstanding philosopher Xenophanes and the poet Mimnermos from the time of ancient Greece.
In the 5th century BC, more precise data about the Greek philosopher are unfortunately not available, Leucippus was born in Abdera or in Miletus.
Even in ancient times there were great social differences between rich and poor citizens. Democritus of Abdera was fortunate to be one of the sons of wealthy parents, and from an early age Democritus was fond of spending large sums of money on trips to distant lands.
In the articles on Roman history of their development, the term Civitas is mentioned again and again, which in the literal translation from Latin means something like "citizenship".
The expansion of the Roman Empire into Anatolia, the Near East and North Africa is partly paralleled by the expansion of the Roman Empire across the Alps.
Water wheels are known from many countries around the world, which use the flowing water as an ecological source of energy to operate machines or devices such as grain mills or sawmills, in which the water power sets a wheel in rotation and the rotational energy is then transmitted to the machines via belt drives.
When the term "Limes" is mentioned, almost everyone immediately thinks of the Roman defense system that ran from the Rhine to the Danube and represented the border between the Roman Empire and the "Free Germania", perhaps also of Hadrian's Wall, which separated England and Scotland.
For us modern people, many technical facilities have become so natural that we use them without thinking and never even think of asking ourselves how these things were done in the past.
Every now and then one hears in the local news during the execution of road works that a milestone has been found, because all too often modern traffic routes directly passes on top of the old routes of the past centuries, sometimes even Roman roads.
In our article on Prof. Dr. (em) Sahin Sencer we already briefly mentioned the sensational find of the Stadiasmos Patarensis.
Ancient writings found in the Greek port city of Pylos, so-called Linear B documents, date from the early 12th century BC.
The empire of the Seleucids belonged to the so-called Diadoch states, which had been formed after the death of Alexander the Great by dividing the huge empire of Alexander among its former leaders.
During our travels through the ancient places of Turkey we often came across the term Pontos trading region or Pontos Greeks. But what was the Pontos trading region or who were the Pontos Greeks? A little research in the history helped to get to the bottom of this question.
Mithridates (132 BC - 63 BC), known as Eupator Dionysus, went down in history as one of the great opponents of the Romans' attempts at expansion.
“50 kilometers long, 150 meters wide and 25 meters deep - the project planned by the former Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who is now president, is gigantic.