Introduction to Ancient History
1. The problem of reliability of historical sources. Why are the sources not always reliable:
 Primary and secondary sources. Primary sources date from the period; secondary
sources date from after the period. Most sources of Ancient history are secondary, and
are very old, so are not entirely reliable.
 Inscriptions are the most reliable source (they are primary), as they have not been
altered since they were produced. However, they usually only give facts, not reasons
(e.g. when a battle took place and who won, not why it occurred).
 Most manuscripts and artifacts from the ancient world have not survived. Ancient sites
were pillaged for stone to use in later constructions; manuscripts were either not
preserved or were destroyed by natural disaster or lack of care.
 The manuscripts that have survived have been transcribed many times, and are subject
to error.
 Historians had great difficulty getting information in those days. It was hard to travel
around the ancient world, and communication was very slow and unreliable. Historians
had to rely on what they read or were told. This was difficult to verify.
 Much of what does survive is limited in what it conveys, as the writers assumed certain
things were common knowledge so did not explain them.
 There is also a serious problem with bias, as the winners are usually the ones who write
history. For example, we have no sources from Persia on the Persian Wars. We only
have the Greek accounts of what the Persians’ motivations were.
2. How were ancient societies different from our own?
a) The senses:
 Sight: People’s knowledge of what things looked like was limited to what they had
actually seen, as there were no photographs, and paintings were crude. Once night
came, there was very little light, as candles were ineffective (giving off just 1 percent
that of a 60 watt globe) and oil for lamps was expensive.
 Sound: Life was very quiet, as there was no machinery. The main sounds were of
people, animals, carts, hammers, etc.
 Smell: Towns and cities stank from animal and human waste. They were also filthy.
Most Roman towns had sewers, but other ancient societies did not. When it rained,
towns flooded. Country roads turned to mud, although the Romans had paved
highways across the empire. Herculaneum had an excellent sewerage system, but
Pompeii did not. It depended on latrines for disposal of human waste.
b) Time:
 Work: It was only viable to work in the day, and in the open air, as indoor lighting
was very poor. People worked all day, then went to bed once night came.
 There were no clocks, so people had to estimate time from the position of the sun.
 The Greeks only had months; the Romans had a seven day week. There was no
regular day off, though there were religious festivals, which counted as holidays.
c) Technology:
 Pulling power was limited to that of a horse or ox. Pushing power was limited to that
of water or the wind.
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d)
e)
f)
g)
Most products were made by hand. Where machinery existed, it was for milling grain
(animal or water powered).
 Land travel was limited to 5 km per hour – the speed a man, horse or ox can walk.
Horses could move faster, but only for limited periods of time. This meant that
people could only travel 50 km overland per day (or 70 km on a horse). Large
amounts of fodder had to be brought on journeys for horses or oxen to eat.
 Sea travel was faster – 10 km per hour for sailing ships, 13 for oared ships. A sailing
ship could travel 100 km per day. Most ships anchored at night unless in very familiar
waters, for fear of running aground.
 Most trade was done by sea.
Habitation:
 Most towns were near rivers or the sea, making transportation much easier.
 Cities ranged in size from 5,000 to 20,000. Athens had a population of over 300,000
in the 5th century BC. Rome had almost a million in the 1st century AD.
 Cities were filthy places.
 People lived in very cramped conditions.
 Heathing and cooling of houses was difficult, except for the rich.
 The Romans had running water available in their towns, but most civilisations lacked
this. Water had to be fetched, which took time.
Health:
 There was little understanding of medicine. Only the rich could get any medical care,
and this was primitive.
 Infant mortality was high - 300 per 1,000 newborns died within a year (some due to
infanticide). The modern rate is 4 per 1,000 births. Life expectancy was 25 years, but
people who made it to adulthood could live to 60 or 70. Modern life expectancy is
between 75 and 80.
 Because there was no soap, it was hard for people to get themselvs and their clothes
clean. Wealthy Romans would rub oil on themselves and scrape dirt off. Public baths
were set up to allow people to wash themselves.
Society:
 People were very superstitious. They believed the gods intervened regularly in
human affairs.
 There were rigid class distinctions – particularly between citizens, foreigners and
slaves.
 The hardest work was done by slaves. The Greeks rarely freed their slaves, but the
Romans usually did.
 Women had few rights.
 Most societies were tyrannies or oligarchies. The main exceptions were some of the
Greek states in the classical period, and republican Rome. Even there, only male
citizens enjoyed political rights.
 Punishments were severe, even for minor crimes.
 Few people could read and write.
 Most people lived on the land, and lived a subsistence existence.
The military:
 Most governments had only small standing armies – Rome being the main exception.
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When war came, mercenaries would be hired to do much of the fighting. The bulk of
the army would be drafted from the citizenry. Some societies, like Sparta, required
all citizens to be trained militarily.
Towns and cities were surrounded by walls, for defence. As the Roman Empire
expanded, the need for walls decreased, as Rome stationed its legions on the
borders. Within those borders, people lived securely
3. Ancient history dates:
 AD and BC. Also referred to as CE (Current Era) and BCE (Before Current Era). There is no
Year 0.
 Centuries: 5th century BC = 500 – 401 BC; 1st century AD = 1 – 100 AD.
 January was chosen as the first month of the year in the 2nd century BC, by the Romans.
 The Christian calendar (i.e. starting with the Year 1) was devised in 525 AD by a monk
named Dionysius Exiguus, but was not widely used till after 800 AD. Dionysius calculated
that Jesus was born in Year 1, but this can’t be right. Experts believe Jesus was actually
born about 7 BC.
5. A chronology of ancient history:
 The three regions of the Ancient World: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mediterranean
(Greece and Rome).
 From 3000 BC (when writing was first developed) to 330 BC, ancient history centred
around Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Mediterranean comprised small warring city
states.
 In 550 BC the Persian Empire was founded. It conquered all of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
In the early 5th century it attempted to conquer Greece, but was defeated.
 The Greek states continued to coexist with Persia till 330, when Alexander the Great
destroyed the Persian Empire. After his death in 323, his empire was divided three ways
– Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt.
 In 250 BC, the Persians Empire re-emerged, this time known as the Parthian Empire.
 In 146 BC Rome conquered Greece, Spain and North Africa, to become the dominant
power in the Mediterranean.
 By 40 BC, Rome had conquered Gaul (France), Turkey and Egypt, giving it control of all
the Mediterranean.
 In 27 BC the Roman Republic was replaced by the Roman Empire. Control now shifted
from the Senate (elected by the people) to the emperor. The first emperor was
Augustus.
 You can use the Ancient History Encyclopaedia to plot the chronology of Ancient
History. Click on https://www.ancient.eu/map/