From the ancient to the early medieval period, Eastern Europe was flooded with outsiders.[59] This constant flow of peoples from the east crossing the Great Northern European Plain would change the history of Eastern Europe. These new arrivals would settle and form states and, in some cases, grand empires that The Girl in Kherson dominated the region. New peoples also brought with them new religions, which would make Eastern Europe a melting pot of religions, peoples, and ideas. This would have a significant effect on how Eastern Europe would develop in later centuries.
In the prehistoric period, there was no such thing as “Eastern Europe,” mostly because Europe, as we understand it to be today, didn’t exist yet.[60] However, the region proved to be a critical crossroads for the first developments of civilization.
Prehistory is roughly divided into three major periods: the Stone Age (c. 3.4 million years ago–3000 BCE), the Bronze Age (c. 3300 BCE–1200 BCE), and the Iron Age (1200 BCE–400 CE), although the Iron Age lasted longer in some areas.[61] These phases were named for the innovative method of crafting tools, weapons, and utensils of the time (stone, bronze, and iron, respectively). The movement of peoples that characterized the prehistoric period would bring all of these technologies to Eastern Europe.
During the Stone Age, the Agricultural Revolution, when prehistoric peoples stopped hunting and gathering and became farmers, reached the Balkans by 6500 BCE. Over the next millennium, it spread throughout Eastern Europe. When agricultural technology arrived in the Balkans, it spread to Eastern Europe along the Carpathian Basin. DNA evidence shows that migrants from the first civilizations of the Near East—places like Mesopotamia and the Nile River Valley—moved west along the steppe, entering Eastern Europe through the Danube gorges that cut through the mountains.[63] This area was rich in natural resources, making it the ideal setting for travelers to settle and spread out. Eventually, these migrants, along with their new methods of food production, overtook the hunter-gatherer communities of Eastern Europe.
This beginning episode shows the importance of the region. Even though Western Europe considers itself the home of civilization, everything it needed to become that home came to it through Eastern Europe. It was the path of languages and technology, but more importantly, it offers a land-based theory—instead of a seaborne one—on how the Agricultural Revolution spread through Eurasia.
Due to the movements of people coming into Eastern Europe and later Western Europe, various peoples traded.[66] Artifacts moved from the north, from the Baltic Sea down to the Mediterranean. One example of how technology spread throughout Eastern Europe was the spread of the use of metal tools. The Copper Age was the bridge between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.[67] During this short period of about five hundred years, people started developing the first uses of smelting that would usher in the Bronze Age. The earliest evidence of the use of metal tools in Eastern Europe lies in present-day Bulgaria. From about 3500 BCE to 3000 BCE, this technology spread from Bulgaria to the rest of Europe.
This period in the 4th millennium BCE brought more people into Europe.[68] As more people started trading their bronze tools and utensils, coastal trading towns appeared. Most of Europe was covered in thick, dense forests, so people started trading on the sea.
However, that didn’t rule out land travel. In the 3rd millennium BCE, more people from the steppe moved into Europe.
Due to Western Europe’s dominance of the European landmass, most people believe that civilizations in the western half of the continent started with the Greeks.[69] Archaeological evidence shows that this is not the case. A 2012 discovery in Bulgaria proves that this area was settled over one thousand years before the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.
Surprisingly, the lands of Eastern Europe were not on the radar of the earliest Greeks; they were only vaguely aware of the region.[70] However, with the spread of civilizations during the Classical period, more and more people started to have contact with Eastern Europe. With more contact with Eastern Europe came the knowledge of the region’s resources.
Eastern Europe would become one of the trading hubs of the ancient world.[71] It included good terrain and several navigable trade routes, which were also used for travel. At the height of the ancient period, the Greeks and the Romans used these routes to make inroads in the area.
For the most part, the classical civilizations eyed Eastern Europe for expansion. There was no such thing as a division between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The ancient civilizations were happy to conquer any area that would add to their power. Considering Eastern Europe’s convenient location along ancient trade routes, the earliest civilizations saw it in their best interest to control this region.
A map of the Aegean Sea and the surrounding area. In the 1st millennium BCE, a series of invaders, like the Dorians who eventually conquered the Mycenaeans, moved into mainland Greece, drawing the local populations into walled-in cities on the coast. These city-states would become known as the Greek poleis.
Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aegean_Sea_map_bathymetry-fr.svg
The first civilization of Greeks might actually have roots in Eastern Europe. According to several studies, although they are far from conclusive, an Indo-European people originating from the Black Sea region moved south, occupying the Balkans. By the time they reached Greece, the tribes had united to create the first official Greek civilization—the Myceneans.
The traditional narrative claims that the Mycenaeans conquered their Minoan neighbors around 1450 BCE, becoming the most powerful Mediterranean civilization in the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. However, the Minoans were already in decline by the time the Mycenaeans defeated them. Deforestation on the island of Crete affected the Minoan trade in bronze. On the nearby island of Thera (modern-day Santorini, Greece), a volcano erupted in circa 1630 BCE. This catastrophe’s environmental and economic effects weakened the Minoan civilization, making them an easy target for Mycenaean attacks. After the Minoans declined, the Mycenaeans later settled the rest of Greece and into Anatolia.
Greece’s location to the south made Eastern Europe the perfect place to begin founding colonies. Here, they could harvest the area’s natural resources to produce food and commodities for the state. However, the Greeks found the climate unsuitable for growing crops. Still, the Greeks traded with Eastern Europeans. In the Balkans, the Greeks encountered the Illyrians. Modern-day Albanians descend from this ancient people group.
The ebb and flow of Greek civilization throughout the 2nd millennium and 1st millennium BCE had long-term implications for the region of Eastern Europe. The Mycenaeans eventually fell, conquered by the Dorians. The next two hundred years, until 900 BCE, is considered the “Dark Age” of Greek civilization.
Centuries went by before what is considered the height of Greek civilization, which saw the rise of city-states like Athens dominate the Mediterranean. As the Dorians invaded the mainland, Greek communities retreated, finding safety in walled-in cities on the coast. Over the next century, until 800 BCE, these cities grew in population and power. Settlements started to expand, reaching north in the direction of the Black Sea.
The Greek city-states developed sophisticated forms of government; each settlement practiced self-rule with highly segregated social classes.[72] A typical Greek polis had designated areas for business, worship, and entertainment, such as the marketplace (the agora), the religious center (the acropolis), the theater, and the gymnasium (for athletic training).
Throughout the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, Greek city-states started to learn not only how to strengthen their own power but also how they fit together to create a uniquely Greek experience. Differing opinions on how much power a ruler or a social class should have jolted political organizations. Cities governed by assemblies and councils shifted to autocracies governed by tyrants and oligarchies, where the power rested with a small, influential group of people.
In Athens, a visionary ruler would change the nature of government to something much more familiar to us today. In the late 6th century BCE, a politician named Cleisthenes revolted against the ruling tyrant in Athens. After a few years of struggle, he took control of the government. In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes came up with a radical idea: all Athenian citizens should participate in governing the city.
Although democracy looks much different today, the direct democracy of ancient Athens was a turning point in political history.[73] It introduced the idea that the population, albeit only the males, should take an interest in how they are governed. This method of government, particularly ideas of self-government, would be short-lived in Greece, but it would endure to the modern age. However, democracy remained elusive to Eastern Europe until the modern age.
Throughout its history, many of the modern countries of Eastern Europe would change hands, falling victim to the stronger powers in the region. In some cases, they were the strongest power in the region, at least temporarily. In its postwar recovery in the 20th century, Eastern European nations were also plagued by the power struggle of the Cold War. In some countries, true democracy and self-rule are a new introduction, a novelty that its citizens are exploring.
The Persian Threat
Also at the beginning of the 6th century BCE, a power from the east would define the Greek experience for the next century.[74] The Persians were the descendants of the ancient Iranians, another Indo-European people who migrated into the modern-day Middle East. The ancient Iranians rarely had control over their own destiny in the 1st millennium BCE; until the late 600s BCE, other larger ancient empires strong-armed them into submission.
The ancient Iranians founded the Median Empire in the 7th century BCE, but they hadn’t reached Eastern Europe yet. The Median Empire only conquered as far west as Turkey. However, in the 6th century BCE, the Medes were defeated by a rebellion in one of their territories.
The winner of this rebellion was from Parsa, from which the name “Persian” comes. Cyrus the Great united the Persian Empire for the first time, and he expanded much farther than the Medes ever did. By invading the outposts on the Aegean Sea in 546 BCE, the Persians, led by Cyrus the Great (r. 559–530 BCE), occupied most of the Middle East. During his reign, the westernmost part of the Persian Empire controlled the southern coast of the Black Sea in modern-day Turkey and the Bosporus, where modern-day Istanbul resides today.
The reaches of the Persian Empire in 540 BCE, around the time the Persians reached the outskirts of Greece
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_near_east_540_bc.svg
The Persians stretched their empire even farther, reaching its most extensive landholdings by 500 BCE. They conquered the Danube Delta region, moving into southernmost Eastern Europe. The Persian Empire stretched as far west as the present-day eastern borders of Eastern Europe. Occupying the Danube Basin, the Persian Empire reached around the southwestern borders of the Black Sea, from the Danube River south to the Aegean Sea. His empire included parts of modern-day Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Greece.
The landholdings of the Achaemenid Empire in 500 BCE are highlighted in red.
Original creator: MossmapsCorrections according to Oxford Atlas of World History 2002, The Times Atlas of World History (1989), Philip's Atlas of World History (1999) by पाटलिपुत्र, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Achaemenid_Empire_at_its_greatest_extent_according_to_Oxford_Atlas_of_World_History_2002.jpg
The Persians controlled the Balkans, and its trade and communication networks brought peoples, goods, and information through Eastern Europe. They understood the value of the trade routes and the geographical importance of the region, so the Persians and their successor empires occupied Eastern Europe in the ancient period and fought others for it. The Persian lands in Eastern Europe were an information highway; the Greeks and the Romans borrowed from the information found here extensively.
Cyrus the Great’s descendant, Darius I, also found himself within Eastern Europe’s borders, according to ancient sources.[75] In 514 BCE, he attacked the Scythians, who were wreaking havoc on the northernmost edge of the Persian Empire. He brought hundreds of thousands of soldiers across the Bosporus, marching up the western coast of Eastern Europe. When the Persians reached Ukraine, the Scythians retreated east. Darius most likely reached the western edge of modern-day Russia before he gave up, turning around and retracing his steps through Eastern Europe. By going back the way he came, Darius left himself and his men open to attack. The Scythians followed behind them, engaging in surprise guerilla attacks on the Persian army as they retreated home.
The Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE)
Unfortunately, the trouble wasn’t over for the Persians. Unrest in Anatolia (present-day Turkey) increased Greek discontent with Persian rule. The Ionian Revolt (499–493 BCE) in the Greek-occupied regions of the Persian Empire took six long years for Darius to put down.
A map showing the Greek settlements in the Persian Empire by the end of the 6th century BCE. The italicized names along the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are the Greek settlements along the western edge of the empire
Asia_Minor_Political_500BC.svg: *Mysia.svg: Emokderivative work:Mysia_map_ancient_community.jpg: User:Rokederivative work: MinisterForBadTimes (talk)derivative work: MinisterForBadTimes, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Anatolia_ancient_regions-en.svg
The Ionian Revolt was the first true conflict between the Greeks and the Persians, but it wouldn’t be the last. When Darius finally returned Ionia to his control, he left behind the violence of the past, attempting to come to peace terms that both the Persians and the Ionians could agree on. Instead of punishing the Ionians, which would have led to even more discontent, Darius launched a punitive strike against Athens for supporting the rebellion.
The military movements from the Ionian Revolt to the Persian defeat at Marathon. Under Xerxes, the Persian invasion of Greece moved along the eastern seaboard of the Aegean Sea, reaching parts of modern-day Eastern Europe as far north as North Macedonia.
User:Bibi Saint-Pol, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Greco-Persian_Wars-en.svg
The Greeks crushed the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, ending the first Persian invasion of Greece. Darius died in 486 BCE, and his son Xerxes took over where his father left off. He launched the Second Persian Invasion in 480 BCE to conquer all of Greece. Xerxes assembled one of the largest armies of the ancient world, leading a two-pronged attack by land and sea.
A map showing Xerxes’s attempted invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. He launched a two-pronged attack by land and sea, rounding the Aegean Sea. He traveled through the lands of modern-day Turkey to modern-day Greece
Brian Boru, GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_Persian_Invasion.jpg
Since the Greek city-states were challenged by the Persians, they allied with each other to protect their lands, even though many of them were in conflict or at war themselves.[76] Together, the allied Greek city-states, led by the most powerful states of Athens and Sparta, defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480.[77] The next year, the Greeks defeated the Persians again on land at the Battle of Plataea.
The Greeks were massively outnumbered, yet they won major victories over the Persians. If the Persians had won, Eastern European history would have been much different. Xerxes would have undoubtedly moved inland from Greece, securing the lucrative trade routes and the natural resources of the interior.
The Peloponnesian Wars (460-404 BCE)
The peace among the Greek city-states would not last. For the rest of the 5th century BCE, Greece would tear itself apart in the Peloponnesian Wars.[78] After the end of the Second Invasion of Greece, Athens and her allies, the Delian League, went on the warpath, pushing the Persians back and making them hand over their territories. As Athens turned itself into an empire, tensions rose with Sparta, the other most powerful Greek city-state.
For decades, intermittent periods of peace, tension, and warfare strained the relationships between the Greek city-states. The first conflict lasted from 460 to 445 BCE, which ended with a peace treaty between Athens and Sparta. The peace only lasted six years before war broke out again.
The next phase of the Peloponnesian War lasted for twenty-seven years, from 431 to 404 BCE, with a six-year peace between hostilities. At the end of the conflict, Sparta obtained the help of the Persians, who wanted to retaliate against Athens for their humiliating defeat. Sparta eventually defeated Athens and the Delian League.
At the end of the Peloponnesian Wars, Athens lost its influence in favor of Sparta. Peace in the rest of the Greek city-states broke down, and they experienced decades of conflict that crushed their infrastructure, population, and economy. Greece’s Golden Age was over, allowing the rise of another power from the north.
Macedon and Alexander the Great (359-323 BCE)
The Greek city-states were exhausted after decades of war and bloodshed, and they were ripe for domination at the end of the 5th century BCE.[79] In 359 BCE, Philip II became the king of Macedon, a military kingdom to the north of Greece. Philip saw imperialism as the key to power; he wanted to strengthen Macedon by conquering other lands.[80] He started with his weakened Greek neighbors.
Philip II’s hardened warriors took Greece by storm.[81] He brought the area under his control through battle or diplomacy, uniting the Greek states under his rule. In 338 BCE, Philip’s victory over a Greek coalition at the Battle of Chaeronea finally cemented his control over the Greek city-states.
Philip II created a coalition of Greek states under his control to accomplish his next goal: conquering the Persians. Before he could make a move, he was assassinated in 336 BCE. Philip’s son, Alexander, was another leader gifted in military command. A lover of Greek culture, his exploits would ensure the survival of Greek culture after the fall of classical Greece.
Alexander saw an opportunity when his father died, and he continued Philip’s assault on the Persians. The Macedonians invaded, conquered, and assimilated lands from Greece to the Middle East to India over the next thirteen years. King Darius III of Persia suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of Alexander. Alexander defeated the Persians in 330 BCE, adding Persian lands to his Macedonian Empire.
A map of the Macedonian Empire, 334-323 BCE.
Generic Mapping Tools, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MacedonEmpire.jpg
Alexander the Great’s empire was the largest ever seen before. It controlled the eastern edge of Eastern Europe, where the modern-day countries of North Macedonia and Bulgaria are today south to North Africa. It included Asia Minor and went eastward all the way to the Himalayas. Alexander still pushed farther, reaching the Indus River in modern-day India. The unforgiving terrain and his disgruntled soldiers forced him to turn back.
Alexander spent 326 to 324 BCE reorganizing the government of his extensive empire. His exhausted army resented Alexander’s equal treatment of Persians and his policy of assimilation with lands he conquered. To calm his men, he decided to return home. He moved backward through his empire, heading back in the direction of Macedon, stopping in Susa and then Babylon. After wintering in Babylon, Alexander came down with a fever and died in 323 BCE.[82]
Alexander the Great’s empire wouldn’t last long. He hadn’t named an heir, so his generals squabbled over regions of the empire in the Wars of the Diadochi. For over thirty years, Alexander’s generals fought over territory, splitting his lands up into smaller territories for themselves. While Alexander’s generals secured their lands, three generals emerged in a lengthy struggle to become Alexander’s successor: Antigonus Monophthalmus I, Ptolemy I Soter, and Seleucus I Nicator.
A map of the successor states of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian Empire. The states controlled by Alexander’s generals Cassander and Lysimachus made up the majority of the Macedonian landholdings in Eastern Europe. They would later become controlled by the Antigonid dynasty.
Diadochen1.png: Captain_BloodDiadochi IT.svg: Luigi Chiesa (talk) This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:Battle icon gladii.svg.derivative work: Homo lupus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diadochi_LA.svg
These generals established their own dynasties: the Antigonid Empire in Macedonia, the more well-known Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, and the Seleucid Empire in western Asia. Until the late 1st century BCE, these dynasties spread the Greek language, knowledge, science, law, politics, and culture in the former Macedonian Empire.[83] After the fall of classical Greece, Greek culture continued in its former domain. This process was known as Hellenization, and this period was called the Hellenistic Age.
In Eastern Europe, parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, and Greece experienced Hellenization. These three dynasties would continue for several centuries until the rise of the Romans. The borders of Alexander’s empire were not solid, and they constantly ebbed and flowed over the next three hundred years. After the Wars of the Diadochi, the successor states were gradually reduced to little more than territories. The last of the successor states, Ptolemaic Egypt, fell to the Romans at the end of the 1st century BCE, ending Greek influence over the lands from Eastern Europe to the Middle East.
The Romans
As the successor states started to decline, a new power from the west was just beginning.[84] By the 1st century BCE, a small city-state on the Italian Peninsula had become a full-fledged empire. Instead of following the Greek model of creating a wide region of states joined by language, culture, and politics, the Romans would preserve Greek culture while implementing their own militaristic society across Eurasia.
A Small City-State Dominates the Mediterranean
As the influence of the Macedonian Empire declined and was sectioned off into successor states, it allowed for the rise of another power. Rome filled the void. After fulfilling their goal of expanding outside of the Italian Peninsula, the Romans maintained a steady presence in Eastern Europe and points beyond for hundreds of years.[85] Rome’s reliance on warfare to grow its territory made it the dominant power of the ancient world.[86]
In the 8th century BCE, Rome was founded as a small city-state, and it was ruled by a line of Etruscan kings. In 509 BCE, these kings were deposed, and Rome became a republican city-state. Until Julius Caesar seized power, Rome ruled itself as a republic. During this period, Rome would spread out, gaining command of the Italian Peninsula and the lands beyond. It was the Roman Republic that conquered the lands that the Roman Empire would inherit in the 1st century BCE.
From the 5th century to the 3rd century BCE, Rome spread out past the Italian Peninsula.[87] Roman colonies were Roman territories. They paid taxes and followed Roman laws, and in exchange, the colonies were protected by Rome. Any attack on the colony was an attack on Rome itself.
On the southeastern side of the Mediterranean, Rome’s main rival was Carthage, located in modern-day Tunisia, North Africa. Carthage commanded the Mediterranean trade. Rome went to war with Carthage three times throughout the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. After the fall of Carthage, Rome replaced it as the main power in the Mediterranean.
After removing the threat of Carthage, the Romans set their sights east, quickly conquering Greece. The Romans wanted to control the trade from Asia, and they knew that holding the lands of Eastern Europe was the best way to do it. The Romans launched a campaign of conquer and assimilate until the end of the 1st century BCE, bringing the Balkans under their control.
Here, the last of Alexander the Great’s empire was hanging on by a thread. As the Romans conquered Greece and Eastern Europe and moved east into western Asia, they would become the next preservers of Greek culture. Just as the Macedonians had spread Greek culture throughout their lands, the Romans would do the same. Members of the upper classes read Greek literature, spoke the Greek language, and collected Greek works of art. They emulated Greek architecture and design in their homes. In fact, the Romans would emulate the Greeks in almost everything. They adopted Roman names for the Greek gods and employed Greek artistic styles in their own art and sculptures. The Greeks became the inspiration for much of Roman law and politics, but the Romans would take it to a new level.
A Republic in Trouble: The First Triumvirate and the Rise of Julius Caesar
In the 1st century BCE, the republic weakened.[88] As Rome had grown over the past six centuries, it led to corruption among the upper classes and exploitation of the lower classes and slaves.[89] A push for land reforms in the 2nd century BCE ended violently. While some public land was taken from the upper classes and given to the lower classes, it wasn’t enough. The conflict between the two factions would define the next stage of the Roman government: the Optimates, who represented the interests of the upper class, and the Populares, who advocated for the lower class.
In the meantime, Rome had descended into a civil war between two generals: Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius.[90] Sulla was victorious, and Marius’s family, of which Julius Caesar was a part, found themselves in a poor position.[91] Caesar lost his wealth and titles, and he was forced to join the army. He worked his way up and achieved modest political power.[92] Although he was a Populare, Caesar was a member of the upper class, and he had other powerful Populare friends: Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known as Pompey).[93] In 60 BCE, the three men ruled Rome as the First Triumvirate. Together, they were unstoppable, with Crassus’s wealth and Pompey’s and Caesar’s popularity with the people.
This method of government would only last seven years. In 58 BCE, Caesar was granted governorship of Gaul, parts of modern-day northern Italy and southern France.[94] Until 50 BCE, Caesar stabilized the area, defeating the Gallic tribes and occupying more land to the northwest. Along with Caesar in Gaul was a young soldier named Mark Antony. By the end of the campaign, Roman Gaul included lands in modern-day France and Germany west of the Rhine River. Caesar’s campaign extended Rome’s dominions to modern-day England to the north and east to the Rhine River Valley.
Caesar’s success in the Gallic Wars made him incredibly popular at home, as Roman society valued military success as much as status and wealth.[95] Back in Rome, Crassus, the wealthiest member of the Triumvirate, hated how well-liked Pompey and Caesar were among the people.[96] He sought the military glory that made his co-consuls so popular and decided to wage a campaign against the Parthian Empire to the east.
The Parthian Empire Challenges Rome from the East
Just as the Persians had challenged the Greeks, Parthia would become a thorn in the side of the Romans as they pushed east.[97] The Parthians contested Roman hegemony in areas just past the borders of Eastern Europe, like Turkey, Armenia, and Iraq. These were areas that required movement through Eastern Europe to reach. The Parthians were a formidable enemy. They mastered the horse for travel and battle, and they could shoot a bow and arrow while riding, which made them particularly effective at blitz attacks. [98] The Parthians could also hunt down their targets and get away quickly when they were the targets.
When Persia fell to Alexander the Great, its lands were incorporated into his great empire.[99] Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals, gained control of the former Persian lands during the Wars of the Diadochi, forming the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucids kept most of the Persian organization intact, including the government.[100] Parthia, which was located east of the Caspian Sea, was a satrap of the Seleucid Empire for nearly one hundred years. By the mid-3rd century BCE, the Seleucid Empire was in trouble. Internal divisions destabilized the government, and war with nearby Ptolemaic Egypt—another subdivision of Alexander’s empire—used all its resources. In 247 BCE, the governor of Parthia, Andragoras, took advantage of the diversion. He rebelled against Seleucid authority, proclaiming Parthia an independent state.
Andragoras made a fatal error, though. By separating from the Seleucid Empire, Parthia lost the empire’s protection. A Scythian tribe, the Parni, set their sights on Parthia. The Parni were East Iranian nomads that traveled west along the steppe. They were incredibly mobile and masters of horseback riding, archery, and blitz attacks. The Parni were experts at stealthy invasions, and they were even better at escaping their enemies.
In 238 BCE, the chief of the Parni, Arsaces, invaded Parthia and killed the governor. With Andragoras dead, Arsaces took over the territory, making himself the first king of Parthia. He established all the telltale symbols of an ancient power; he established a succession, and he consolidated power into his hands. Throughout his reign, Arsaces managed to hold the Seleucids back from retaking Parthia.
Over the next century, wars continued between the Parthians and the Seleucids. During that time, it would expand in all directions: east, west, and south. In 209 BCE, the Seleucid Empire would eventually get Parthia back, but it would only be temporary. King Antiochus III was lenient with the new Parthian king, Arsaces II. Instead of deposing or killing him, Antiochus allowed Arsaces to keep his position. However, Parthia returned to a satrapy of the empire. By 191 BCE, the Parthian nobility grew frustrated with the weak Arsaces and usurped the throne, putting another king on the throne in his place.
Conflicts with Rome in the early 2nd century BCE permanently weakened the Seleucids. At the end of the Roman-Seleucid War in 188 BCE, Rome gained control of the Greek city-states, making it the dominant power in the Mediterranean. This continued the Roman push to the east, which would bring them into contact with the Parthians.
By 129 BCE, Parthia had taken the Median Empire and Mesopotamia, putting them further in the Romans’ line of sight. That year, King Antiochus VII Sidetes was killed in a battle with the Parthians. He would be the last powerful Seleucid king, and his death marked the beginning of the empire’s end. Within five years, the most powerful king of Parthia would rise—Mithridates II. He is considered Parthia’s greatest king, as he oversaw the largest expansion of the empire. Through his efforts, Parthia stretched to the northeast, ever closer to Rome. The swath of land that stretched from east of the Mediterranean Sea to China was all controlled by Parthia. Mithridates II was the king that made Parthia into a major world power.
In the 1st century BCE, Parthia would find its footing against the might of Rome. As Rome pushed east, it took Mesopotamia from the Parthians, who, at the time, were ruled by Phraates III (r. 70–57 BCE). A brief dynastic struggle between Phraates’s sons (who had murdered him) broke out, with Orodes II emerging victorious. He retook the Seleucian capital on the Tigris River, which was a major military and psychological victory for the Parthians.
The extensive lands that were part of the Parthian Empire allowed it to control trade from Europe to Asia. The Parthians were merchants as much as warriors, and they grew rich on the movement of food and luxury items from Europe to Asia and back again. When they weren’t at war or expanding their territory, they introduced Eastern goods to the West and shuttled Western goods all the way to Asia.
Land borders of Rome and Parthia at the time of the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
Cplakidas, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_East_50-en.svg
By the time Crassus arrived with his army in 53 BCE, he was facing one of the most powerful states of the ancient period.[101] At the Battle of Carrhae, the Romans were no match for ten thousand Parthian warriors on horseback.[102] Their expert archers decimated Crassus’s army. During the peace negotiations, the Parthians murdered Crassus; according to Cassius Dio, the Parthians poured melted gold down Crassus’s throat—a humiliating end to the richest man in Rome.[103]
Caesar as Dictator: The Fall of the Roman Republic
After Crassus died, the First Triumvirate devolved into a rivalry between Pompey, who began siding with the Optimates, and Caesar, who remained loyal to the Populare cause.[104] Without a third member, the other two men couldn’t check their own power and ambition. Caesar was still in Gaul, but Pompey made a power grab, trying to force Caesar to return to Rome for a trial. Instead of returning in peace, Caesar returned with an escort of soldiers. And when he crossed the Rubicon into Italy, it was seen as an act of war. Pompey and his supporters didn’t have time to make enough preparations for a defense of the city, so they left Rome.
In 48 BCE, Caesar and Pompey met at the decisive Battle of Pharsalus in Greece.[105] Caesar was victorious, and Pompey retreated to Egypt.[106] Although Pompey believed he would find sanctuary (and help) there, he was murdered as soon as he arrived. This left Caesar as the undisputed ruler of Rome.
When Julius Caesar returned to Rome, he strong-armed the Senate to make him dictator for ten years. This placed an extraordinary amount of power in his hands—power he used to pass reforms that were equal parts self-serving and beneficial to the Roman people.[107] Many senators feared he would eliminate the governing body.[108] Caesar’s assassination in March 44 BCE left the foundering Roman Republic in turmoil.[109]
Caesar’s death was essentially the end of the Roman Republic, although you could argue that its demise began much earlier than that.[110] The Roman Republic only lasted four centuries, and it officially ended in 27 BCE. The end of Caesar marked the rise of another Roman personality, one who would turn Rome into an empire: his nephew, Octavian.
Augustus: The First Roman Emperor
Since Caesar had no legitimate children, he adopted Octavian and made him his heir.[111] Rome experimented with another triumvirate when Octavian joined forces with Mark Antony and another general, Lepidus. The Second Triumvirate, which was formed in 43 BCE, used the power of their alliance to murder their enemies.[112] The Triumvirate also went after Caesar’s assassins, defeating the last of the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE.
Octavian sought control of Rome as his birthright as Julius Caesar’s heir.[113] The Triumvirate assigned sections of the empire to each member to check their influence.[114] As Caesar’s heir, Octavian took Rome, and Antony controlled the east. Octavian and Antony originally gave Lepidus Spain and Africa, but he was soon deposed, breaking the Triumvirate.[115] The real power and struggles of the empire lay between Octavian and Mark Antony.
Antony retreated to the east to cement his power base.[116] He defended his borders against Parthian incursions and secured the east under his control.[117] His personal and political alliance with the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, turned Rome against him.[118] On top of that, Octavian humiliated Antony in public as he tried to restore the influence that had been taken from him with Antony’s alliance with Egypt.[119] [120] The Triumvirate broke down, and Antony and Octavian declared war. In 31 BCE, Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. They killed themselves when Octavian invaded Alexandria, as they refused to be taken hostage and shipped back to Rome in humiliation.[121]
Lorenzo A. Castro, The Battle of Actium, September 2, 31 BC, 1672.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castro_Battle_of_Actium.jpg
According to historian Simon Jenkins, “If any man deserved the title of founder of modern Europe, it is Octavian (Caesar Augustus).”[122] With Mark Antony’s death, Octavian became the most powerful man in Rome.[123] In 27 BCE, the Senate gave Octavian unlimited powers that were very similar to the rights Julius Caesar demanded years before.[124] How did Augustus do what Caesar did but succeed?[125] Caesar was well-loved by the people, but politicians saw him as a threat. However, Augustus managed to toe the line between both, keeping everyone happy.
Instead of greedily forcing the Senate into bending to his will, Octavian knew how to play the Roman politicians. Although he initially rejected them, he took unlimited powers and a new title, Augustus, publicly stating that it was only to help recover the might of the Roman Republic. [126] Instead, beginning with his reign in 27 BCE, Rome was no longer a republic; it was an empire.
This is perhaps the best-known image of Augustus (formerly known as Octavian). The sculptor is unknown, but Augustus of Prima Porta is named after where it was excavated.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue-Augustus.jpg
Octavian was also successful on the battlefield—a quintessentially Roman attribute.[127] One of the first victories Augustus made was taking the land of Illyricum and turning it into a Roman province.[128] Modern-day Albanians trace their lineage to these Illyrians. Augustus only suffered one defeat of note: the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9 CE.[129] The battle was fought in Saxony, the eastern region of modern-day Germany that borders the Czech Republic and Poland. Augustus’s general Varus was betrayed by Arminius, who was a member of the Germanic auxiliary troops. Arminius learned Roman military tactics, so he knew how to exploit the weaknesses in the army’s defenses. He led a coalition of Germanic tribes in a victory so overwhelming that the Romans abandoned their designs on conquering Germania for over 150 years.
The loss at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest is important for another reason.[130] The river became a natural barrier between Roman Gaul and the Germanic tribes. The lands east of the Rhine River became the conventional Roman frontier, the extent of Roman-controlled lands in Western Europe. Instead, the lands that were considered “Roman Germania”—Germania Superior and Germania Inferior—were west of the river, along the northeastern edge of Roman Gaul.
The Battle of Teutoburg Forest defined the Rhine River as the border of Roman lands in Western Europe. This map of the Roman provinces held in the 2nd century shows that the lands named “Germania Superior” and “Germania Inferior” are at the northeastern limit of Roman territory. The Germanic tribes that lived on the eastern side of the Rhine River were free from Roman control.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RomanEmpire_117_recoloured_2.svg
Eastern Europe was no-man’s-land; it was a place so rugged and dangerous that even the Romans couldn’t penetrate it. The notion of Eastern Europe as we know it today became a sort of punishment, as Rome sent those who challenged its authority there. The well-known poet Ovid wrote racy poetry that directly contradicted Augustus’s policy of morality. The emperor punished Ovid by sending him to the Black Sea.
The reforms that Augustus put in place would form the structure of the Roman Empire for centuries to come. He reigned over a Rome that rebirthed itself into an empire for four decades. What he left behind would grow, stretching far beyond the Black Sea.
The Roman Empire would eventually divide in two. The Western Roman Empire would endure, at times drag through, for the next 450 years. The Eastern Roman Empire would survive the fall of the West and be reborn as the Byzantine Empire. It would not fall until the mid-15th century.
The First Roman Emperors
All was not peaceful and serene in the early Roman Empire.[131] Augustus and his immediate successors never bothered to secure the path of succession. This led to a tumultuous era of rises and falls, where an emperor was assassinated, chaos ruled, and then a successor would seize power.
Many names familiar to us today come from this period.[132] Tiberius, Augustus’s successor, was a good soldier who served the emperor well.[133] He led successful campaigns on the eastern frontier in Pannonia (modern-day Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Germania. Tiberius defeated Arminius, the victor of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
However, he was a horrible emperor. The pattern of eliminating enemies through assassination began with Tiberius, and it would last throughout the 1st century.[134] He had his rival for the throne murdered at the beginning of his reign. Tiberius most likely eliminated his nephew Germanicus because he was too popular among the Roman people. He also stationed the Praetorian Guard nearby to ensure the Senate’s good behavior. Tiberius adopted Germanicus’s son, Caligula, who then unleashed his own reign of terror.[135]
The 2nd century was much calmer and less chaotic, as Roman emperors learned how to rule effectively.[136] The Flavian and the Nerva-Antonine emperors brought relative peace and prosperity to Rome. Trajan, perhaps one of the best Roman emperors, expanded the empire to its furthest extent, conquering (among other territories) Dacia in modern-day eastern Hungary to Romania and Moldova to northern Bulgaria.[137] Trajan was a conqueror and a builder, and he began a public works campaign that would be continued by his successor, Hadrian.
A map of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent during the reign of Trajan in the year 117. Trajan conquered lands in Eastern Europe, making them part of the Roman Empire. By the 2nd century, Eastern Europe lay in the center of the Romans’ vast landholdings, reaching as far north as Dacia and Pannonia, which includes parts of the modern-day borders of Romania, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Tataryn, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Empire_Trajan_117AD.png
However, Hadrian would retreat from the borders Trajan had laid. He was less expansive, choosing to improve the infrastructure and society of the empire instead of grabbing more land.
During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the calm sophistication of Rome started to crumble.[138] When the Parthians conquered Roman Syria, Marcus’s co-emperor Varus led a successful campaign to reclaim the territory in 161. However, the returning troops infected the capital and the surrounding areas with the plague. This coincided with an invasion by Germanic tribes that shook Rome’s confidence.
Marcus Aurelius and Varus went to the Danube to reinforce the border, but the Germanic tribes looped around, attacking the Adriatic coast. In 169, Varus died of natural causes, leaving Marcus to push the tribes back alone. He spent the next six years securing the Danube frontier, placating the Germanic tribes by letting them settle in two new provinces: Marcomanni and Sarmatia (located in the modern-day Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia).
A map of the Roman Empire in 180 after the death of Marcus Aurelius. During his reign, he established two new provinces for the resettling of invading Germanic tribes: Marcomanni and Sarmatia.
Tataryn77, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aurelius180AD.png
The Disintegration of the Roman Empire
Although Marcus Aurelius is considered one of the better Roman emperors, his reign includes the beginnings of a dark chapter in Roman history: the Christian persecutions. By the end of the 2nd century, Christians were a distinct sect of Judaism, but they were not well-liked. The Romans saw them as a threat to paganism, which was the chosen form of worship in Rome.[139] Even though Marcus Aurelius persecuted Christians, he was not as steadfast in his beliefs as later emperors.
Aurelius’s real objection was not that Christians were a monotheistic religion but that they refused to toe the line. The key to Roman supremacy was the idea that the emperors were gods and that they should be regarded as such. However, Christians refused to do that, stating that there was only one God.
After Marcus Aurelius died, the Roman Empire started to disintegrate.[140] The last years of the 2nd century leading into the 3rd century were characterized by barbarian invasions, an extensive empire without the means to govern it properly, and a shaky line of succession. The Roman emperors, starting with Marcus Aurelius’s son and heir, Commodus, lost the respect of their own bureaucracy.[141] The governors of Rome’s colonies started acting like emperors of their own territories.
At the turn of the 3rd century, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus strengthened Rome’s eastern borders. He secured the borders on all sides, but his reign was the beginning of the shift to the East. The Roman Empire was about to enter the “Crisis of the Third Century,” which was a fifty-year period in which political instability, plague, and barbarian invasions shook Rome to its core.
In 284, Diocletian brought the empire out of the Crisis of the Third Century. Diocletian was born in Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania) along the eastern edge of the Adriatic Sea, and he was a strong ruler who pushed several invaders out of Roman jurisdiction, including Germanic and Slavic tribes.[142] He established a strong infrastructure and bureaucracy, strengthening Roman borders.
Diocletian divided the Roman Empire into four districts, appointing each territory to its own ruler. There were two emperors and two co-emperors under Diocletian’s system, which was known as the Tetrarchy.
Coppermine Photo Gallery, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetrarchy_map3.jpg
Diocletian continued what Septimius Severus had started; he officially split Rome into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. His idea was to make the borders smaller; the empires would be equal states with separate rulers, which would make administration easier. Having succeeded in bringing stability back to Rome, Diocletian passed the throne to his successor, living the last seven years of his life in peace in Dalmatia.
Although Diocletian had divided the empire to make it stronger, he actually tore it apart.[143] With the division came rivalry and power plays; it was a constant game of who was more powerful?[144] Many other changes occurred. Christianity arose in the East, while Rome held on to its pagan beliefs. The invading barbarians introduced Romans to a culture that was so unlike their own.
Constantine and the Eastern Roman Empire
The rise of the Eastern Roman Empire was secured during the reign of Constantine, who inherited the throne of the Western Roman Empire. He united both the East and West under his rule by 324. Constantine felt a great affinity for the Eastern lands, where he studied rulership under Diocletian. Constantine wanted to build a great city in the East, one that would rival all others. Its name? Constantinople.
Constantine shifted power to the East, reigning both empires from Constantinople. His decision to make the city the capital of both empires may have been pragmatic.[145] It was a trading center, and it was closer to the Danube, which had become harder and harder to secure. Its location on the Bosporus Strait provided natural protective barriers. However, his decision may well have been due to the fact that Christianity had taken root in the East more so than the West.
The school of Raphael interpreted this scene as The Baptism of Constantine, which was completed in 1517.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_Baptism_Constantine.jpg
Constantine is famous for his deathbed conversion to Christianity, allowing the religion to spread throughout the empire.[146] The truth is, he planned the spread of Christianity long before his death. In 313, he signed a decree proscribing religious freedom across the Roman Empire. He also allowed Christianity to make its home in Constantinople.
This wouldn’t be enough for the cracks already rising in Christianity to reverse themselves.[147] As early as the 4th century, there was disagreement over doctrine. A subsect, Arian Christianity, did not believe in the Trinity as other Christians did. This spelled trouble for the new religion that Constantine swore to protect. Before his city could become a Christian mecca, he called the Council of Nicaea in 325 to resolve the differences in doctrine.
Even by the time of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity had already made its home in the Eastern Roman Empire. Almost 60 percent of Christian bishops practiced there, and only about 2 percent of the bishops who attended the Council of Nicaea represented the Western Roman Empire. Even though Constantine promised to observe the meeting, he put pressure on the proceedings for what he saw as a favorable outcome. Under the Nicene Creed, anyone who followed Arian Christianity, which believed that the supreme being, God, was superior to the mortal Jesus, became a heretic.
In 326, Constantine did something that would torment the Roman Empire for the rest of its existence. He traveled to Rome, claiming that Constantinople would be the capital of the Roman Empire.[148] Rome would play a secondary role from here on out. Constantine also tried to enforce Christianity while he was there, which upset those who still clung to the old ways and revered the old temples. To show how serious he was about making this upstart religion the dominant one across the empire, he ordered two churches constructed. They would later become known as Archbasilica St. John Lateran and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Now that he had thrown his weight around, Constantine had to make Constantinople the beacon of the empire he made it out to be. When it was completed in 330, it had all the features of a great Roman city: protective walls, breathtaking palaces, a forum, and other public spaces. The riches of the empire that passed through Constantinople went to lavishly decorate the city.
The Column of Constantine was built in 330 to mark the foundation of Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire.
Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Column_of_Constantine.jpg
Constantine died in 337, seven years after his great city was complete. While he had pushed and supported Christianity throughout his reign, he never really got around to officially converting. He did that on his deathbed. It seems strange that the emperor of Rome would have promoted something that was so fundamentally broken. He took great pains to unite his empire, but he replaced paganism with a fragmented church. Instead of abolishing Arianism, the Nicene Creed just ignored it; it spread to the West, making its home there. Arguments over doctrine turned into sectionalism.
There were now many different sects of Christianity, and none of them could agree on anything. However, maybe Constantine knew what he was doing. Within thirty years of his death, Roman emperors became Roman Christian emperors. Any attempts to crush the opposition in Christianity just made the subsects stronger.[149] While Constantine prided his city of Constantinople as being the center of his grand empire, it was tearing itself apart from the inside on matters of religion.