There were several defining characteristics of the era of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome.
1. Wide land and sea trade routes that allowed goods and people relatively to safely travel far and wide; think Herodotus.
2. Large cities that consumed and produced goods for far and wide; relative freedom for individuals with the means to do so, to choose difference professions.
3. Critically, a concept of citizenship with legal and sometimes political rights; Athenian Democracy, or Rome, which was more progressive in the sense that women were citizens, heavily involved in business and other ventures, allowed everything but hold military or public office.
After it's transition to nominal one man rule, Rome became a Principate. The emperor was called a "First citizen", and intentionally humble title. The senate still held considerable power, and there was still a concept that the Empire was still called "Res Publica", and believed to be for the benefit of the Roman people.
In the West, it began after the third century crisis, a series of disasters that nearly destroyed the Roman empire, and after this there were a series of changes that led to what we now call Medieval culture. ( P.S. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the five good emperors, and the crisis can also arguably be dated to the succession of Commodus.)
The end of large cities, the movement of citizens to rural, landed estates and smaller, walled cities, where they gave up the rights to the landownders (later Lords) and became "colonoi", later called serfs; essentially bonded labor, or a modified form of slavery; certainly a far cry from the citizenship of classical times. The old trade routes declined, good were now produce locally in hereditary professions. Overall imperial power declined and these new, local areas would vie for power.
The "Principate" became the "Dominate", with a more naked absolutism, forcing people to kneel before him and kiss his robe, etc.
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Rewinding, how did the classical period start? Between 1206 and 1150 BC, some events, it's remarkably unclear what, but something led to the Collapse of the Myceanean Kingdoms, The Hittite Empire, and the New Kingdom in Egypt. Both the story of the destruction of Troy in the Iliad, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, occurred during this collapse and led to the founding of those civilizations, as well as the Founding of Rome.
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Anyways, it was the rediscovery of the Greek and Roman writings, with concepts of Citizenship, Democracy, Natural Law, in the writings of Cicero and others that would spark the Renaissance and fuel the Enlightenment. Where are we now? I don't know.
1. Wide land and sea trade routes that allowed goods and people relatively to safely travel far and wide; think Herodotus.
2. Large cities that consumed and produced goods for far and wide; relative freedom for individuals with the means to do so, to choose difference professions.
3. Critically, a concept of citizenship with legal and sometimes political rights; Athenian Democracy, or Rome, which was more progressive in the sense that women were citizens, heavily involved in business and other ventures, allowed everything but hold military or public office.
After it's transition to nominal one man rule, Rome became a Principate. The emperor was called a "First citizen", and intentionally humble title. The senate still held considerable power, and there was still a concept that the Empire was still called "Res Publica", and believed to be for the benefit of the Roman people.
In the West, it began after the third century crisis, a series of disasters that nearly destroyed the Roman empire, and after this there were a series of changes that led to what we now call Medieval culture. ( P.S. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the five good emperors, and the crisis can also arguably be dated to the succession of Commodus.)
The end of large cities, the movement of citizens to rural, landed estates and smaller, walled cities, where they gave up the rights to the landownders (later Lords) and became "colonoi", later called serfs; essentially bonded labor, or a modified form of slavery; certainly a far cry from the citizenship of classical times. The old trade routes declined, good were now produce locally in hereditary professions. Overall imperial power declined and these new, local areas would vie for power.
The "Principate" became the "Dominate", with a more naked absolutism, forcing people to kneel before him and kiss his robe, etc.
---------------------
Rewinding, how did the classical period start? Between 1206 and 1150 BC, some events, it's remarkably unclear what, but something led to the Collapse of the Myceanean Kingdoms, The Hittite Empire, and the New Kingdom in Egypt. Both the story of the destruction of Troy in the Iliad, and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, occurred during this collapse and led to the founding of those civilizations, as well as the Founding of Rome.
---------------------
Anyways, it was the rediscovery of the Greek and Roman writings, with concepts of Citizenship, Democracy, Natural Law, in the writings of Cicero and others that would spark the Renaissance and fuel the Enlightenment. Where are we now? I don't know.