The Celts

Celtic peoples spread westward across Europe from about 800 BC. They lived in tribal groups, settling in hillforts and farms. The Celts were unable to unite against a common enemy – the formidable Roman legions.

The Celts were brave and fearless warriors, but they were equally skilled at metal-working, making beautifully decorated weapons, jewellery and drinking cups. They were also gifted storytellers, passing down stories of their gods and history by word of mouth. Later, Roman writers recorded many details of Celtic life and culture. They reported that the Celts worshipped many different gods and goddesses, and offered sacrifices in their honour. Religious rituals and ceremonies were performed by priests, called druids. In charge of each of the Celtic tribes was a chieftain. One of the most famous of these was Vercingetorix, a chieftain of the Arveni, a Celtic tribe that lived in central Gaul (France). In 52 BC, he led a rebellion against the Romans that was successful initially. However, he was later defeated by Julius Caesar’s well-trained army.

Many Celtic tribes built huge hilltop forts surrounded by massive protective earthworks, where they lived safe from attack. Victory in battle was celebrated with feasts that could last for several days, drinking and the recital of long poems telling of the deeds of Celtic heroes and gods. Their greatest god controlled the weather and the harvest and brought victory in battle.

Celtic warriors were famed and feared for their bravery in battle. Wars frequently broke out between rival Celtic tribes – a weakness that helped the Romans to overwhelm them more easily.

BOUDICCA

The Roman emperor Claudius invaded Britain in AD 43. Some Celts fought back fiercely. In AD 60, Boudicca (or Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe in eastern Britain, led a revolt against the Romans. The Celts burned London and killed some 70,000 Romans and townspeople. But her army was defeated in AD 61, and Boudicca killed herself by drinking poison.

Alexander and the Persians

After the squabbles following the Persian Wars, Macedonia became the dominant force in Greece. Its young king, Alexander, led his armies on an epic march of conquest, crushing the Greeks’ traditional enemies, the Persians.

The Persian homeland was in what is now Iran. The Persians had come to rule an empire that stretched eastward to India and as far west as Turkey. Powerful Persian kings, such as Cyrus the Great, commanded huge and efficient armies. Darius I (521-486 BC) built fine roads for carrying messages quickly across the empire, which he reorganized into provinces called satrapies. From 499 BC, Persia turned against the Greeks, but in 480 BC its invasion fleet was defeated at the Battle of Salamis.

Power then swung towards Greece. In 338 BC, Macedonia’s warrior king Philip II gained control of all the Greek states by victory at Chaeronea. When Philip was murdered in 336 BC, his son Alexander became king, aged 20. It took Alexander just 13 years to conquer the largest empire in the ancient world, spreading Greek (and Persian) culture far and wide.

In 334 BC, Alexander led his army against the Persians. He wanted not only to conquer their lands, but also to replenish his royal treasuries. In 333 BC, he defeated the Persian king Darius III at the battle of Issus, and by 331 BC had conquered the whole of Persia and become its king. To strengthen the ties between the two peoples, Alexander included Persians in his government. He also wore Persian clothes and married a Persian princess, Roxane. He went to invade India, defeating King Porus at the battle of the river Hydaspes. It was to be his final expedition. His exhausted army refused to go on, and Alexander was forced to retreat to Babylon. He died there of a fever in 323 BC, aged 32. After his death, the empire was divided among his leading generals.

Ancient Greece

By about 800 BC, Greece saw the rise of a new civilization that transformed the ancient world. Its influence has lasted to the present day. Ancient Greece was divided into small, independent city-states, each with its own government and laws. The two most important were mighty Athens and Sparta.

Most city-states were ruled by a group of wealthy nobles (an oligarchy). Resentment led to revolts, and absolute rulers (tyrants) were appointed to restore law and order. Then, in about 508 BC, a new type of government was introduced in Athens. It was called democracy, meaning ‘rule by the people’, and gave every free man a say in how the city should be run. Many countries today are democracies, but with votes for all.

The Classical Period (when Greek culture was at its height) lasted from about 500 BC to 336 BC. During that time, Greece was involved in two long-running wars. In 490 BC the Persians invaded. The Greek city-states joined forces and eventually defeated them in 449 BC. One of the most famous battles took place at Marathon in 490 BC. A messenger named Pheidippides ran the 40 kilometres back to Athens carrying news of the Greek victory. His run is immortalized in the modern marathon race.

But peace did not last. In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta (the Peloponnesian Wars). After laying siege to Athens, the Spartans starved the Athenians into submission. In 404 BC, Athens was forced to surrender.

The ancient Greeks were great scholars, thinkers and teachers. At first, they answered questions about life and nature with stories about the gods. Later, they started to look for practical and scientific ways of making sense of the world about them. Their scholars were called philosophers, which means ‘lovers of knowledge’. They included Scorates, Plato and Aristotle.

Drama and sport played a very important part in the lives of the ancient Greeks. Greek theatre grew from the performance of songs and dances at an annual festival dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine. These performances were acted out by a group of men called a chorus.

Sport was important not only as a form of entertainment, but also as a way of keeping men fit and healthy for war. There were many competitions for athletes. The oldest and most famous was the Olympic Games, held every four years at Olympia. For the five days of the games, a truce was called between the city-states to allow the athletes safe passage to Olmpia. Athletes trained hard for months before the games. The prize for the winners was a simple olive crown cut from a sacred tree, and a hero’s welcome, fame and fortune when they arrived back home.

Assyrians, Hittites and Babylonians

The Assyrians and Hittites were two of the most warlike peoples of the ancient world. The Assyrians eventually conquered the Hittites and founded an empire that lasted from about 1000 to 612 BC. Babylon first grew powerful under the rule of King Hammurabi (c.1792-1750 BC). He extended Babylon’s frontiers to include Sumer and Akkad, and rebuilt the city of Babylon, making it his capital.

The Hittites, who are mentioned several times in the Bible, lived in what is now Turkey. By 1500 BC they were a strong power in the Middle East. Their capital was the city of Hattusas, or Bogazkoy, where archaeologists have found cuneiform writings. The Hittites were feared for their military skill. They were the first people to use horse-drawn chariots, which carried soldiers at high speed into battle. Hittite armies conquered Babylon, Mesopotamia and parts of Syria. One of the most famous battles of ancient times was fought at Kadesh, north of Palestine, in about 1285 BC between the Hittites and the ancient Egyptians.

After about 1190 BC, Hittite power was weakened. In 717 BC their eastern city of Carchemish was captured by the Assyrian king Sargon II. The Hittites then became part of the new Assyrian empire.

The Assyrian came from what is now Iraq. They were ruled by soldier-kings, who led huge, well-trained, well-equipped armies. The Assyrians were ruthless against enemy cities. They demanded yearly tributes from conquered peoples; anyone who defied them risked torture and death.

The last great ruler of Assyria, Ashurbanipal, made Nineveh his capital and collected a huge library there. Soon after his death in 627 BC the Assyrian empire ended. It had become too large and ungovernable, and fell to the invading Medes and Babylonians. Hammurabi, the Babylonian king, was a just and diplomatic ruler. He is famous for his code of law, the oldest surviving in the world. After his death, Babylon was invaded by the Hittites, Kassites, Chaldeans and Assyrians. The Assyrian king Sennacherib destroyed the city in 689 BC. But Babylon regained its former glory during the 6^th century BC under King Nebuchadnezzar II. The king conquered a huge empire and made the city perhaps the grandest in the ancient world.

Ancient America

Over 3,000 years ago, two great civilizations grew up in ancient America – the Olmecs in western Mexico and the Chavin along the coast of northern Peru. Their ancestors had come from Asia across the Bering Strait ‘land bridge’ thousands of years before. At first, they lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers, but later they settled in farming communities.

The Olmec civilization is thought to have been the first to develop in North America. It started as a small group of villages dotted around the Gulf of Mexico. Gradually these villages merged to form towns, and by around 1200 BC the civilization was flourishing. One of the main centres of Olmec culture was the city of La Venta on an island off the Mexican coast. The people who lived there were fisherman and farmers. The Olmec built huge earth pyramids where religious ceremonies were held.

Many of their sculptures and carved masks depict a half-human, half-jaguar creature, possibly a powerful god. The system of writing developed by the Olmecs influenced many later cultures, such as the Maya.

The Chavin civilization began in peru in about 1200 BC and lasted for about 1,000 years. It is named after the great religious site of Chavin de Huantar which was built in around 850 BC. It consisted of a huge stone temple surrounded by a maze of rooms. At the heart of the temple was a great staute of the Smiling God, with a human body and a snarling face. The Chavin also worshipped jaguar spirits, eagles and snakes.