The Iron Age

While the use of iron predates the period depicted here, widespread knowledge of iron founding supplanted bronze in the period between 1200-600 B.C., though this distribution was considerably hampered by the collapse of numerous societies for the first half of this period (the so-called Ancient Dark Age). With the restoration of civilisation in the Mediterranean circa 850-650, a very different world came into being, as the global focus of power moved west from the Fertile Crescent to the Aegean.

Greece

Following the collapse of the Bronze Age civilisation of Mycenae (c.1100 B.C.) and the destruction of palaces and cities, the Hellenic peninsula and islands was ravaged by famine, leading to depopulation. Amongst the political instability, raiding of coastal settlements from the sea became commonplace. Education and writing ceased and vital trade links were lost, while towns and villages were abandoned. Greece became isolated and backward for three centuries.

For a century prior to the collapse, Arcadian and Achaean peoples had already settled in the central Peloponnese; occupying Mycenae, they used the coast as a base for raiding Crete, Anatolia and the Levant. Ionians occupied Attica and Euboea, while the Boeotians settled in central Greece. The Thracians seized the north coast of the Aegean. Aeolians spread throughout the islands of the Aegean, notably Lesbos and Chios. Far to the north, the Illyrians occupied the east coast of the Adriatic. The greatest of these people were the Dorians, who were a backward warlike people who had first settled in Epirus. Between 1100-1000 B.C., the Dorians spread outwards to the south, diplacing peoples in the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Megara and the Argolid. The most powerful Dorian tribe would settle in Lacedaemon and Laconia, where they would later become the Spartans. From these places they built ships and raided Crete, Cos, Rhodes and Cyprus, destroying as they went and settling the lands with their own numbers. The many tribes, each occupying a small valley, plain or coastal part of the Greek peninsula, would dispute one another over territory ceaselessly for the next eight hundred years.

Aristocracy & Colonisation

By 900 B.C., monarchies were increasingly replaced throughout Greece by aristocracies, as kings vanished or were reduced to a titular office (save in Sparta). The nobles became the dominant power in the state through the possession of iron weapons and the acquisition of property, at the expense of poorer farmers. This led to renewed food shortages and distress, so that after 800 B.C., colonisation — encouraged first by the aristocrats to get rid of discontent — by Greek city states scattered Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean. Important colonies were founded in along the Anatolian coast, in Libya, on the Nile (Naucratis, 640 B.C.), and even on the Gaulish and Iberian coasts, and along the northern shore of the Black Sea. Trade from these colonies reunited the Mediterranean, while at home there grew a culture surrounding myths and legends voiced by bards such as Homer (c.750-800 B.C.).

The import of luxury goods (oils, wine, ivories, gold and silver) encouraged greater skill in technological processes like metallurgy and pottery; this enabled the Greeks to compete favorably with the Phoenicians and encouraged the growth of a cultivated, educated populace. Slavery increased and coinage was introduced from Lydia; minting by individual city states also became a competitive practice. Lyric poetry flourished; geometric art was replaced by the oriental, or animal style. Philosophy began with the Milesian School: Thales, Anaximenes and Anaximander investigated mathematics and expanded an understanding of logic.

The Early Peloponnese

By 800 B.C., Sparta had consolidated its control over the central peninsula and had colonized the coast of Messenia. She warred with Teges, chief city of the backward and disunited Arcadians, who maintained a loose religious union centering about the primitive worship on Mt. Lycaeum. Corinth had become commercially important and, until 720, dominated its smaller neighbour Megara. Argos, though claiming the hegemony of Greece as heir of Mycenae, remained a weak state.

In the First Messenian War (736-716 B.C.), Sparta, led by King Theopompus, conquered Messenia and divided the rich plain into lots, which the Messenians, as helots (serfs), worked for their Spartan masters. Besides helots and Spartans, there was a third class of Laconians, the periocci, who were free but not possessed of citizen rights. Sparta still, however, had an artistic and intellectual life equal to any in Greece, especially in respect to choral poetry.

King Pheidon of Argos (c.680 B.C.) made Argos powerful, for a brief time. He defeated the coalition of Sparta and Tegea in the battle of Hysiae (669) and, in support of rebellious Aegina, crushed Epidaurus and her ally Athens. Pheidon introduced coinage into Greece with a mint at Aegina. After his death, the powers held by rulers was curtailed. The city-state of Argos declined.

During the Second Messenian War, Sparta — with difficulty — crushed her rebellious subjects, who were led by Aristomenes, master of Arcandia, who afterwards took refuge on Mt. Eira. By the so-called Eunomia, the Spartans, fearing further revolts, completely reorganized the state to make it more severely military.

Rise of Tyranny

By 650 B.C., the aristocracies felt the pressure of landless traders and artisans, who wished a say in their political futures. To maintain their authority, and supported by the rich, various tyrants arose; in some cases, ambitious individuals, bent on overthrowing their masters, organized rebellions and installed themselves as tyrants also. On the whole, these tyrants were successful with the population, as they kept the people happy with festivals and public works. Nevertheless, the power of the nobility diminished, class and racial distinctions were abolished and many city states moved towards a more democratic model of government. Important tyrants included Theagenes of Megara (640 B.C.), Thrasybulus of Miletus (620); and Cleistenes of Sicyon (600).

Athens

The nobles in Athens gradually restricted the power of the king, first by giving his military functions to a polemarch and then his civil functions to an archon. The hereditary kingship was abolished (683 B.C.) and made into an annual office. Nine archons were chosen from the nobles by the areopagus, a council of nobles which was the greatest power in the state. The ecclesia, or assembly of all freemen, had either gone out of use or was completely without power.

Cylon, a noble related to the tyrant Theagenes attempted to establish a tyranny in Athens (632 B.C.), but was foiled. Many of his followers were tricked into surrendering and then slaughtered by Megacles of the Alcmaeonid clan. In 621, Drako replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court of law; though it laid the foundation for Athens' democracy, the harshness of these laws displeased the citizens and led to the use of "draconian" to describe an unforgiving set of rules.

Phrygia & Lydia

The Phrygians (as well as the Mysians) occupied a minor vassal state of the Hittites, in central Anatolia upon the Sakarya River. The capital was located at Gordium, that was founded by King Gordius (c.1250 B.C.). Gordius' son, Midas, is remembered in mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. They participated on the side of Troy in the Trojan War; King Priam of Troy married a Phrygian princess, Hecuba. With the collapse of the Hittite Empire, the Phrygians established their independence (c.1175 B.C.). The kingdom, acting as a barrier between Greece and the east, would steadily expand, reaching its height in the 8th century B.C.. By this time, it would dominate most of central and western Anatolia. The Phrygians developed a system of writing, maintained close trade with the Greeks and produced a distinctive pottery called Polished Ware. The chief deities of the Phrygians were Cybele (the Great Mother riding in a chariot drawn by lions), whose orgiastic cult would long outlive the kingdom; and Attis, the god who died by castration but came back to life; his priests, Galli, were eunuchs.

However, the kingdom was overwhelmed by the Cimmerians, a nomadic people from the north, related culturally to the Scythians. In 714 B.C., the Cimmerians invaded the Assyrian state of Urartu; following a defeat by the Assyrians under Sargon II in 705, they turned west and completed the conquest of Phrygia by 696-695 B.C..

Lydia had also been a vassal of the Hittites, achieving its independence in 1192 B.C.. Located between Phrygia in the east and the Aegean, Lydia became a link between east and west, culturally and commercially. The Lydians were great merchants and expert craftsmen; they reinvented coinage as an alternative to the use of precious metals for exchange and were fond of horsemanship. Later, they contributed to the development of music and the dance. The writer Aesop was a Lydian. They worshipped the gods Santas and Bacchus. The capital was Sardis.

Lydia was ruled by 22 successive generations of the Heraclid Dynasty; the last, Candaules, was assassinated (687 B.C.) and succeeded by his former friend Gyges, founder of the Myrmnadae Dynasty. Gyges would form an alliance with the Assyrians, defeat the Cimmerians (685 B.C.) and extend the borders of Lydia. But after sending Carian and Ionian mercenaries to the aid of Psamtik, who drove the Assyrians out of Egypt, the Cimmerians invaded Lydia. Gyges fell in battle against them in 652, after which Sardis was razed. His son, Ardys, would wage an ongoing war with the Cimmerians, who occupied the former lands of Phrygia and eastern Lydia, for 33 years. After the Cimmerians were defeated by the Assyrians in the 620s B.C., Ardy's annihilated them in 619. Nothing else would be heard of the Cimmerians afterwards. Between 619 and Ardys death in 603, the Lydians would occupy Phrygia and carry forth a conquest of Greek cities (begun by Gyges) on the Anatolian coast.

Rome

The early Italian peoples, the Terramare, expanded into the Italian Peninsula from the Rhone and upper Danube valleys, coming into contact with the maritime people of the Aegean world. These included the Samnite, Sabine and Latin tribes. A more advanced culture, the Umbrians and Oscans, entered northeastern Italy from the middle Danube basin, bringing with them a knowledge of iron.

Etruscans

The earliest evidence of an Etruscan culture begins about 900 B.C. Influenced by the Greeks, the Etruscan civilisation reached its height around 750, during Rome's foundational period. The culture flourished in Etruria, the Po Valley and Campania, although these were not united under a single ruler. Writing based on Greek script, the ability to work iron and a political system that favoured authority distributed among individual small cities and prominent important families were important contributions to later Roman civics. The peasant of today identifies with his neighboring city, as did generations of Italians before him. Italian history has always been municipal. Thereafter they declined, leaving little evidence that would withstand the dramatic violence that would take hold of the peninsula over two thousand years.

Foundation of Rome

Destined to rule the ancient Mediterranean world, Rome showed no early promise of greatness. Though the Italian peninsula was populous in prehistoric times, the site of Rome was without inhabitants before the 1st millennium B.C. Even after the first settlement was made, the future imperial city was little more than a hamlet situated at a ford on the Tiber River, traditionally founded by Romulus, the son of a princess of Alba Longa. The kings of Alba Longa, in turn, were descended from Aeneas, a fugitive of the Trojan War. During the 8th and following centuries, small settlements on the Palatine, Esquiline, Quirinal and Capitoline hills, united into the one "Rome," with a common meeting-place in the valley between the Forum. These peoples were of different racial stocks, chiefly Latin but partly Sabine, Etruscan and pre-Italic. The importance of Rome is less likely to have been economic than military — an outpost of the Latins against the encroaching Etruscans.

Romulus was Rome's first king (753-715 B.C.), who thereafter became elective rather than hereditary. The king's power was limited by a senate of 100 elders (patres), which was advisory, not compulsory, and by a popular assembly of the clans (curiae), the comitia curiata, which conferred upon the newly elected king his powers. There were two classes in the state, patricians, who alone could belong to the senate, and plebians. Most probably the patricians were simply the most prosperous farmers, who for their own advantage organized themselves in curiae, set themselves up as a superior class and usurped privileges for themselves.

Numa Pompilius (715-673 B.C.) succeeded Romulus. A Sabine, he organized the religious and political institutions: the Roman Calendar; Vestal Virgins; the cults of Mars, Jupiter and Romulus; and the office of Pontifex Maximus. Tullius Hostilius (673-641) defeated Alba Longa, which became Rome's vassal state. Ancus Marcius (641-616) waged war successfully against the Latins, resettling those he conquered onto lands surrounding the Aventine Hill.

Egypt

Following the collapse of Dynasty XX, the growing power of the high priests of Amon wrested the power away from the descendants of Ramses II, establishing Dynasty XXI amid the collapse of Egyptian power over its empire. Hrihor (1080-1074 B.C.) established his capital at Thebes, striving for authority against the nobles led by Smedes. This initiated what is called the 3rd Intermediate Period, an era of decline and political instability coinciding with the collapse of other civilisations in the Near East.

The Libyan Sheshonk would raze Egypt in 945 B.C., founding Dynasty XXII. This brought stability to the country for more than a century after a long factional power struggle. The capital was established at Bubastis; however, after the reign of Osorkon II (837 B.C.), the country had split into two states, with the priestly family of Amon founding an independent southern Nubian kingdom with its capital at Napata (Dynasty XXIII). Anarchy and civil war prevailed through the unification of the kingdom (718) and during the brief interim period between 718-712 B.C., during which time the Nubian king Kashta marched north and defeated the combined might of several native Egyptian rulers.

Shabaka, king of Napata, conquered Egypt in 712 and founded Dynasty XXV. Pharoahs of the dynasty built or restored monuments throughout the Nile Valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa and Jebel Barkal. The prestige of Egypt had declined considerably by this time, with an ever-present threat from the Assyrian Empire in the east. Essarhaddon of Assyria defeated the pharoah Taharka, occupying the country as far as Thebes over the period of 670-663 B.C., killing Taharqa while his successor Tantamani withdrew to the south. In 664 the Assyrians delivered a mortal blow, sacking Thebes and Memphis.

In 663, Tantamani launched a full-scale invasion of Lower Egypt, but the campaign was short-lived; the Kushite king withdrew to Nubia, while Assyrian influence faced quickly in Upper Egypt. The new leader of the Egyptians was Psammeticus of Sais (663-609 B.C.), in the western Delta, who had been appointed governor by the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal. After the Assyrian yoke had been cast off (652), Psammeticus unified Egypt once more and became the first ruler of the XXVI, inaugurating the Saitic revival.

Phoenicia

Following the collapse of societies surrounding the eastern Mediterranean, there arose various great cities of Phoenicia, a disunited collective culture arising from traders, expert seafarers and colonist explorers. An expansive sea trade network had existed for more than a millennium, becoming the dominant commercial power in antiquity. Tyre, Sidon, Beirut and Byblos flourished as independent kingdoms for centuries after the collapse of Egyptian power along the Levant coast after 1225 B.C. Ugarit was destroyed in 1200 from the sea; Beirut fell to the Assyrians (c.1100 B.C.).

Hiram I (969-936) established the Hegemony of Tyre, subjugating the colony of Utica and employing his craftsmen to provide King Solomon with a fleet for his operations on the Red Sea. Ittobaal of Tyre (887-856) would found a dynasty and his descendants would rule the Phoenician Kingdom independently until 774 B.C.. The last king, Pygmalion (820-774), was famous for founding Carthage in 814. Thereafter, Phoenicia would become first a vassal state of the Assyrians and afterwards subjugated territory.

Israel & Judah

In the 11th century B.C., the ten tribes of Israel were living in Palestine among the Canaanites, without unity — though they continued to regard themselves as Israelites. Three other tribes, Simeon, Levi and Judah, were living in the extreme south of Palestine. Jabin, the king of Canaan, oppressed the ten tribes, six of whom answered the summons of the prophet Deborah (1107 B.C.) and fought victoriously against the Canaanites in the Valley of Jezreel. The Judges, victorious tribal leaders, ruled over the tribes. Gideon was followed by seventy sons who ruled jointly; Ehud killed Eglon, King of Moab; Jephtah, a Gileadite, defeated the Ammorites; but these Judges founded no dynasty. The tribe of Benjamin was nearly destroyed in a civil war (1170 B.C.). Samson of Dan, a heroic figure of legend, defined the beginning of the conflict with the Philistines in the 1140s B.C., the result of which would be the migration of the tribe of Dan to the extreme north of Palestine.

Pressure from Philistine domination induced the Israelites to name a king, Saul (1028-1013), after his spectacular deliverance of Jabesh in Gilead. Saul defeated the Philistines at Michmash, but took his own life after his defeat at the Battle of Gilboa.