From a modest nome, i.e., the rural settlement of Ashur, in the center of modern Iraq, the great power of antiquity, Assyria, is developing. Piece by piece, exuding bloody drool, it engulfs the territories of modern Turkey, Syria, Israel and partially Egypt. The pearl of Assyria, Babylon retains autonomy from its once province, seeks allies, revolts, dies and rebuilds again. In the absence of strong garrisons, shouts, swords, chariots, whips and overseers, military power in the new provinces simply does not work. Assyria gets tired of fighting. Descending from the northern mountains, at first as loyal allies, even more ruthless and uncultured Scythians wander through its territory, almost without encountering resistance. Media and Babylon are gathering armies according to the Assyrian model, destroying the new capital of Assyria, Nineveh, its sacred center Ashur and all this utterly militarized state.
Excavated ruins of Babylon, 6th century BC. In the background is a temple complex, reconstructed by order of the current head of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.
The remnants of the armies of the once formidable superpower are looking for an alliance with the reborn, like Osiris, Egypt and in the end are lost somewhere in its endless deserts …
Sample of Sumer poetry:
«… Your beauty is divine, dear
Leo, dear to heart
Divine beauty is your dear
You conquered me, I tremble before you…
Leo, let me caress you
My precious caresses are sweeter than honey…»
…
Ancient Egypt (Latin pronunciation «Ayguptus», Hebrew «Mitsraim», Arabic «Masr», self-name Ta-Kemet, «Black Earth»).
Ancient Greek goddess Isis, friend of all
The oldest Egyptian kingdom was founded five thousand years ago by the monarch Menes and his people, who supposedly arrived from the now flooded coast of Western India. Let's remember and color this historical scheme. Early Kingdom, Ancient, Middle and New. Pharaoh Psammetichus (664-610 BC) expels hard-hearted Assyrians from his country. Independence does not last long. In the fifth century BC, Egypt was captured by Persia (the Achaemenid dynasty). Two centuries later, the country is ruled by the Hellenic dynasty of the Ptolemies. As a rule, the conquerors, admiring the developed culture of the "Black Earth", treat the Egyptians rather softly. In total, for two and a half millennia of the era of the Ancient World, 32 rather long dynasties rule Egypt.
Poetry of Ancient Egypt:
…I heard the words of Imhotep and Jedefkhor
Words that everyone repeats
What about their tombs?
The walls have come crashing down
Even the place where they stood was not preserved
As if they never were
Nobody has come from there yet
To tell what is there
And soothe our hearts…
(Song from the house of the deceased king Antef, inscribed in front of the singer with a harp)
…In the first century BC, with the death of the son of Cleopatra and Caesar, the unfortunate youth Caesarion, Egypt completely passed into the hands of the Romans. Since the beginning of the eighth century AD, the Arabs have dominated here.
Until the very late period, the Egyptians did not know any developed monetary system. At the very least, financial means are substituted for 42 kg sacks of grain. and the debens are bars of copper or silver. To a large extent, everything in Ayguptos depends on what the rulers decided and how correctly their words were reflected on the papyrus by an almost equally significant figure – the scribe.
The kitchen of a standard Egyptian dwelling does not have a roof, but has a millstone for grinding grain and an oven. The basis of the diet of ordinary, and not ordinary residents of the country Ka-Temet, too, is wheat buns. Beer «hake», from date juice and bread, sweetish or bitter, considerable 10 degrees, almost like wine, with additions of mandrake, anise, saffron. Famous varieties – «Merry fellow traveler», «Fine».
For some religious reasons, the ancient Egyptians do not eat pork, as well as the Semites living a little to the east.
Egypt today. Behind the complex of majestic pyramids lies the desert, in which about 80 million mummies of ordinary people find their rest. It is interesting that at one time the Jews, admired by the culture, wisdom and kindness of the Egyptians, recognized them as almost equal to themselves. Three generations later, descendants born in a marriage with an Egyptian woman could already enter society
Temples and other large-scale religious buildings in Egypt are not intended for mass gatherings. Only priests are involved in the service. The basis of religion is the need to collect some disconnected «aspects» in order to continue to exist in a spiritual form. On the physical plane, this is expressed in the need to mummify and preserve the bodies of people who have gone to another world in a special way.
Greece and Persia
Ancient Greece. One thousand hundred years BC – the beginning of the so-called polis period. The first cities, houses, temples and fortress walls. The invasion of the Dorians from the north (in their pure form – the Spartans), the high achievements of culture and social structure. Amphoras and Forums. Militant Sparta rules over the Greek world on a par with the wise Athens. Mighty, albeit imperceptibly withering, Persia concludes a de jure treaty with the Greeks, on the protectorate, which Sparta monitors.
Greco-Persian Wars 500—479 BC.
By this time (or, to be precise, 492 BC), the new ruler of Persia, Darius the First, founds the Achaemenid empire, including, among other things, Syria, Asia Minor and Egypt. Accusing the Greeks of violating the union treaty, formalized in a "small text" as an entry into this empire, he sends an expeditionary force of 25,000 soldiers to Greece, but receives a decisive rebuff from the founders of democracy. The Persians lose 7,000 soldiers, the Greeks – only 194. 19 years after the Battle of Marathon that has not faded for two and a half millennia, the Battle of Thermopylae and the naval battle of Salamis follow. The troops of the son of Darius, Xerxes, suffer a final defeat at the Greek Plataea.
Ancient Greek poetry:
…And every time, as soon as I
I’ll get along with you, from a tender meeting
Suddenly my soul trembles
And speech grows numb on the lips
And a keen feeling of love
Runs faster through the veins
And ringing in the ears… and a riot in blood…
And cold sweat comes out…
And the body – the body keeps trembling…
The faded flower is