Ancient Greece is the birthplace of ancient Greece. Greece, Crete – an island of sights, mountains and sea VII

From the Dark Ages - a period of decline that came in the XI-IX centuries. BC e. - Hellas carried the seeds of a new state system. From the first kingdoms there remained a placer of villages that fed the nearest city - the center of public life, a market and a refuge during the war. Together they constituted a city-state ("polis"). The largest policies were Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes.

Rebirth from darkness

During the Dark Ages, Greek settlements spread from the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula to the western coast of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), covering the islands of the Aegean Sea. By the beginning of the 8th century BC. e. Greeks began to restore trade relations with other peoples, exporting olive oil, wine, pottery and metal products. Thanks to the recent invention of the alphabet by the Phoenicians, a script lost during the Dark Ages has begun to revive. However, the established peace and prosperity led to a sharp increase in the population, and it became increasingly difficult to feed them due to the limited agricultural base.

Trying to solve this problem, the Greeks sent entire parties of their citizens to develop new lands, found new colonies that could provide for themselves. Many Greek colonies settled in southern Italy and in Sicily, so this whole area became known as "Greater Greece". For two centuries, the Greeks built many cities around the Mediterranean and even on the Black Sea coast.

The process of colonization was accompanied by drastic changes in policies. The monarchy gave way to the aristocracy, that is, the rule of the most noble landowners. But with the expansion of trade and the introduction of metallic money into circulation around 600 BC. e. following the example of the neighboring kingdom of Lydia in the south of Asia Minor, their positions were noticeably shaken.

In the VI century BC. e. conflicts constantly arose in the policies, tyrants often came to power. "Tyrant" is a Greek word, like "aristocracy", but the ancient Greeks did not mean that the tyrant's regime was cruel and anti-people, but meant that a person forcibly seized power, but could at the same time be a reformer.

Despite the reforms of the famous legislator Solon, the tyrant Pisistratus seized power in Athens. But after the expulsion from Athens of Peisistratus' successor Hippias in 510 BC. e. a democratic constitution was adopted. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of the west. This is another word of Greek origin, which means the rule of the demos, that is, the people. Greek democracy was limited as women and slaves did not have the right to vote. But due to the small size of cities, citizens could not depend on their elected representatives, as they took a direct part in determining laws and discussing especially important decisions at popular assemblies.

In the 5th century BC e. conflicts broke out between democratic and oligarchic parties in many policies. Supporters of the oligarchy believed that power in society should belong to the wealthiest citizens.

Athens and Sparta

If Athens can be called a stronghold of democracy, then Sparta was rightfully considered the center of the oligarchy. Sparta was distinguished by a number of other features.

In most Greek states, the percentage of slaves to free citizens was quite low, while the Spartans lived as a "master race" surrounded by a superior number of potentially dangerous helot slaves. To maintain their dominance, the entire people of Sparta was turned into a caste of warriors, who were taught from early childhood to endure pain and live in barracks.

Although the Greeks were ardent patriots of their cities, they recognized that they were one people - the Hellenes. They were united by the poetry of Homer, belief in the all-powerful Zeus and other Olympian gods, and the cult of the development of mental and physical abilities, the expression of which was the Olympic Games. In addition, the Greeks, who honored the rule of law, felt their difference from other peoples, whom they indiscriminately dubbed "barbarians." Both under democracy and in oligarchic policies, everyone had legal rights, and a citizen could not be deprived of his life at the whim of the emperor - unlike, for example, the Persians, whom the Greeks considered barbarians.

However, the Persian expansion, which began in the VI century BC. e. and directed against the peoples Ancient Greece and Asia Minor, seemed inevitable. However, the Persians were not particularly interested in the lands of the Greeks - poor and remote on the other side of the Aegean until Athens supported the Asian Greeks who rebelled against Persian rule. The uprising was crushed, and in 490 BC. Persian king Darius sent troops to take revenge on Athens. However, the Athenians won a landslide victory at the Battle of Marathon - 42 km from Athens. In memory of the feat of the messenger, who ran all this distance without stopping, in order to quickly announce the joyful bear, a marathon was included in the program of the Olympic Games.

Ten years later, Darius' son and successor, Xerxes, staged a much larger attack. He ordered to line up his ships in a row, forming a bridge across the Hellespont Strait, dividing Asia Minor and Europe (the current Dardanelles), through which his huge army passed. In the face of a common threat, the Greek cities were forced to unite. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of the west. The army of Xerxes came from the north, and the Greeks, who gathered troops from different cities, accomplished a real feat, putting a barrier in the way of the Persians. King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans gave their lives trying to hold the narrow Thermopylae Gorge as long as possible.

Unfortunately, the death of the Spartans was in vain, since Ancient Greece still fell under the onslaught of the enemy. The inhabitants of Athens were evacuated, and the invaders burned all the temples in the Acropolis. Although a year before the war, the leader of the Athenians, Themistocles, seriously strengthened the fleet, in terms of the number of ships, he was hopelessly inferior to the superior forces of the Persians and the Phoenicians they had conquered. But Themistocles managed to drive the Persian armada into the narrow Strait of Salamis, where it was unable to maneuver. This caused panic in the ranks of the Persians and allowed the Greeks to completely defeat the enemy fleet.

Decisive battle

Since Sparta actually retired from the liberation struggle, Athens became the undisputed leader in ancient Greece. In 478 BC. e. The Delian League was concluded, which allowed Athens and its allies to pool their resources and continue the war. However, the union soon turned into an instrument of political radicalism. The allies were obliged to introduce in their states democratic forms of government on the model of Athens and to finance the maintenance of an ever-increasing fleet for the needs of general defense. After the end of the war with the Persians in 449 BC. e. the union was preserved, and all attempts to withdraw from it were severely suppressed.

Classical Athens

5th century BC e. is considered the great age of classicism of Greek civilization, which is primarily identified with Athens. But both before and after this period, other Greek cities made a very significant contribution to Greek culture, giving the world many masterpieces of poetry, ceramics and sculpture, as well as the first philosophers who tried to explain the universe from the standpoint of physics, and not magic and miracles.

And yet the main achievements of human thought and art are connected with Athens. Among the temples built on the Acropolis, the most famous is the Parthenon, with its perfect proportions and superb stucco decorations. The first dramatic works in the world arose on the basis of Athenian rituals in honor of the god Dionysus. Athenian philosophers, including the famous Socrates and Plato, were the first to deeply analyze questions of morality and political ideals. In addition, Athens was the birthplace of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the first true historian (that is, a scholar engaged in critical research, and not just retelling of fables and rumors).

No less outstanding historian was Thucydides, who was not only the commander of the Athenian army, but also the chronicler of the great Peloponnesian war of 431-404 BC. Concerned about the growing power of Athens, the Spartans founded the Peloponnesian Union, which included representatives of the large Peloponnesian Peninsula in the south of the mainland of Ancient Greece. The first clashes between the two alliances were indecisive, and it seemed that this situation would continue for a long time. However, after the plague broke out in Athens, which claimed the life of the leader of the Athenians, Pericles, Sparta won this confrontation. But although the Spartans controlled the area around Athens (Attica), the city itself remained impregnable for them, since the famous Long Walls surrounding the city cut off the approaches to the port of Piraeus, from where supplies were delivered to Athens. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of the west. Thus, Athens' dominance of the sea was preserved.

Defeated Winners

After a seven-year truce, war broke out again, when the Athenian army, which had besieged the powerful Greek city in Sicily of Syracuse, was itself surrounded, and the entire expeditionary force was completely destroyed. The Spartans closed Athens in a tight blockade ring. The Athenian fleet was defeated in the battle of Aegospotami. In 404 BC. e. the starving city was forced to surrender.

Sparta and Thebes

The dominance of Sparta also did not last long, she was opposed by the unification of Athens, Corinth and Thebes. In 371 BC. e. The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, inflicted a crushing defeat on Sparta at the Battle of Louctra.

The superiority of Thebes turned out to be even more fleeting, and in the second half of the 4th century Greece entered as never before disunited. In comparison with other states, Macedonia, located in the north of Greece, remained an underdeveloped outskirts, but it was ruled by the talented king Philip II of Macedon, and she had a well-trained army. In 338 B.C. e. in the battle of Chaeronea, the Macedonian army completely defeated the combined army of the Athenians and Thebans. Ancient Greece had a single ruler. A new era has begun.

Nature told the woman: be beautiful if you can, wise if you want, but you must be prudent by all means.

Surprisingly, there is no other country in the world that would be so understandable and close to us literally from childhood, like Greece. Let's remember how our Houses of Culture look even in the most provincial cities - these are, at a minimum, copies of ancient Greek temples with Greek porticos on columns! ..

What about the myths and legends of the ancient Greeks? Didn’t they read them to you at night? .. Plaster heads in circles? .. Greek salad for the holiday? .. “Thais of Athens” by Ivan Efremov, finally, after which the boys quit smoking and ran to the rocking chair, and the girls to the hairdresser, so that they could look like ancient Greek heroes and mistresses.

By the way, about love - about the very one! In the late USSR, we also learned about it exclusively from the “Greek Fig Tree” - remember such a cassette tape?

And what about this beautiful country? After all, they heard that something is still missing in it, contrary to the statement of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: “Greece has everything! ..” (“Wedding”). And there are not enough Russian tourists, well, right - very much! You need a lot of them at once. Not less than a million! That is how many Greeks are ready to receive this year the "boys from Tagil" or oil workers from Salekhard, with their children and wives, friends and colleagues. Because it is tourism, and nothing else, that is the locomotive of the Greek economy.

And now, in mid-April, almost everything is ready for the big season here: beaches have been swept, tables have been set up in street cafes and restaurants, bronze has been polished on pleasure boats, and in some places even musicians have appeared, carefully trying their vocal cords on the first tourists. Not Demis Roussos, of course, but feta and ouzo (aniseed vodka) go much easier under their strumming...

In the central part of Rhodes (city), an ancient fortress and partly temple buildings have been preserved. The local children, without any reverence, immediately play football, ride bikes.

Literally, huge cruise ships moor to the ancient walls of the fortress. And right there, a tiny by today's standards entrance to the bay, in the alignments of which once stood the famous Colossus of Rhodes. The same Colossus that was one of the seven wonders of the world of the ancient world. What else is curious: four of those seven miracles were created by the Greeks! ..

And now, after centuries and millennia, it is good to sit on this embankment, along which no one just walked or rode in chariots, and reflect on how the world once was. And even if you are the most inveterate cynic, you will not take away merit from the Greeks. And even now, when the Greeks - like the Soviet people once, do not lose historical optimism. They live and work quite to themselves in Greek - with dignity and without whining. Therefore, the next time you are locked up, try to throw everything to hell and be born again, but already - Greeks! ..

Greece - the birthplace of Dionysus

The Polyus was the third ship of our expedition, which was sent for repair to this particular shipyard in Greece.

In this regard, we came there with detailed instructions from the comrades who were here before. They told in detail about where it is cheapest to drink. Some even had maps of the city with drinking facilities marked on the plan. The first number on all the plans of Ermoupolis was a tavern just outside the gates of the port, which everyone called At Baba Ooty. Actually, the hostess's name was Zespina, but the old lady was saying the traditional Greek greeting Yasos! with such an unusual grunt, and even waddling, that she was very soon affectionately dubbed Baba Utei, and this nickname was inherited from crew to crew. She loved Russian sailors like her own children. First of all, because the grandmother's tavern owed its prosperity solely to one very important fact - over the past five or six years, twenty-five Soviet ships were repaired at the shipyard, we were the twenty-sixth. Therefore, Russian sailors paid less for her wine than the Greeks.

It was also attractive that barrels of wine and local cognac were stuck into one of the walls, and my grandmother willingly poured them to go. At the same time, a two-liter plastic bottle with draft local cognac Metaxa cost, in terms of our money, about ten wooden rubles, as much as half a liter of cognac cost in Russia. And the local grape moonshine Old brandy, insanely popular among midshipmen, was even cheaper. But he had a major drawback - if you drink more than a liter at night, then in the morning only a glass of alcohol could relieve a headache, which you had to beg from the doctor. Patented Sedalgin did not help even handfuls.

Grandma's tavern had the most spartan furnishings. It was a place for real men. Tables, chairs, barrels in the wall with taps sticking out of them and no frills in the form of a bar and, even more so, a kitchen. They drank, as a rule, without a snack, or they brought something with them. Such a democratic environment was very attractive. Once the appetizer was over, and there was still a lot of booze, and Baba Utya, obviously afraid that the Russians might get drunk and die, which would cast a shadow on her business, went somewhere to the back rooms and after a while came out with a giant scrambled eggs , which she fed sailors completely free of charge

Grandma often herself was not averse to having a glass in the company of Russian friends. Workers and craftsmen from the shipyard often came here and sat down to the Russian table with pleasure. Quite often drinking parties acquired wide international proportions. This worried the special officer very much, since it was precisely such a situation that created the conditions for the recruitment of Soviet sailors as accomplices of world imperialism. It must be said that the Greeks, for the most part, are very low-drinking people, but many shipyard workers, after communicating with so many Russian sailors, ceased to belong to this category. They were ruined by the mutual attraction of Russians and Greeks to each other and the desire to consolidate friendship. Friendship for the fortress was filled with strong drinks. I personally talked with one middle-aged master from the shipyard, who drank, and on a par with our midshipmen, undiluted alcohol, and after each glass he twitched and enthusiastically exclaimed: Oh! Shilyo-yo-yo…. I mean Shilo.

Sometimes for Greeks, drinking alcohol with Russians ended in a temporary loss of health and disability, which in a country of wolf capitalist relations could threaten with the loss of a job - this is how a politically savvy political officer explained to us. On Easter, my first mate and I were invited to visit by one of our Greek friends, Ilya, with a charming, to our ears, surname Cherubim. I remember that the political officer and the special officer discussed the question for a long time: can communists participate in the Easter feast? Traditionally, they advised not to go, because there could be provocations from CIA agents, which, of course, are the whole Cherub family, including a three-year-old daughter. Of course, no one began to take such nonsense seriously, and they had to go without a blessing from the commissar.

On the occasion of the celebration of Easter, right in front of us on the stone terrace of the house, a goat was roasted and put on the table in company with a barrel of wine and a variety of different delicious food, decorated with greens. At first we drank this barrel with the owner and his family, then he took out more cognac, then he took out more liqueurs. All this was accompanied by conversations in several languages ​​and the joint choral singing of Katyusha in Russian and Greek at the same time. At some stage, we began to fear for the health of the owner and began to persuade him to stop consuming his alcohol reserves, but he went into a rage and decided to keep up with the Russians without fail. And he didn't back off. When we left, his wife saw us off, since Ilya Cherub himself could not speak and did not give any signs of life at all, except for intermittent breathing and uncontrolled movements with his eyeballs. We were only in a great mood, and no more. Poor Ilya went to work only four days later, all pale and miserable. He then told his compatriots for a long time a heartbreaking story about how he drank with Russian sailors and almost died. I think he remembers this booze to this day.

The desire to treat a Russian friend in a tavern among the Greeks had some completely irrepressible character. It often happened that when we asked for a bill, it turned out that someone from the shipyard workers who was in this institution at the moment had already paid for us. Naturally, we could no longer just leave and invited a Greek friend to our table, ordered a drink in return, and the evening passed in an atmosphere of friendship and complete mutual understanding. Language barriers quickly disappeared. Our Orthodox souls, Russian and Greek, felt warm and comfortable together. Almost always we were joined by the Greeks because of the neighboring tables. Toasts began to be raised to the friendship of peoples and, in general, to world peace. Often, if the place allowed, the famous Sirtaki dance was performed by a large international group.