Classical antiquity is defined as the era of cultural history centered majorly on the Mediterranean Sea which comprises the intertwining civilizations of the ancient Greece and the ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is a long period in which the Greek and the Roman society blossomed and exercised great influence throughout Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia.
The respect for Classical Antiquity is part and parcel of the broader tradition in the West, where for millennia the study of the Classics was tantamount with education. The Classical authors such as Cicero, Virgil, and Plato, among others have since provided the paramount texts through which countless people have come to know themselves, comprehend their world, and cultivate empathy for their fellow human beings. For instance, Latin and Greek have since remained crucial languages for better understanding of the Catholic Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers. The humanist scholars of the Renaissance and Enlightenment have been intensely motivated by the writings and actions of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Furthermore, the students who take courses in the Classical Civilizations Department thus place themselves in all of these traditions. They get to know more about the past world, their own world, and themselves.
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The history of classical antiquity can be traced to 4500BCE where it is associated with the start of civilization from the western countries. An example is that of the start of emergence of the first “unified peoples” or cultures like Hittites, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian. The other indicator for this is the emergence of city states like Uruk that was found in Mesopotamia. Another indicator of the classical antiquity is the emergence of hieroglyphic writing systems which was realized in Egypt. There was also the increased sight of social organizations and cohesions where it was seen with the emergence of highly intensive labor projects like that of those of monumental architectures like Ziggurats, Pyramids among others. There was also the development and the emergence of the use of metallurgy like that of the use of copper. All these are the signs of the emergence of classical antiquity. The first signs of civilization were Mesopotamia (resent-day Iraq) and Egypt and the lands between the two sides of River Nile. The art that was generated by these two cultures notably those of Ancient Greece can be attributed to the start of these civilizations.
The remains that became of Greco-Roman antiquity, that include coins, sculpture, buildings, and classics of Greek and Latin literature ignited an interest in men and women to work on Italian Renaissance. The arts and humanities was said to have declined in the middle ages that was between the end of antiquity and the start of their own. But by improving the works of the ancient artists, and even surpassing them, contemporary artists and writers might restore the arts and the level of their former grandeur. In Renaissance Italy, the desire to surpass the excellence of the former artists often superseded the effort that was put forth in other places. The study and the practice of former artists for classical antiquity is what enabled them to immerse in the works of their predecessors in order to understand what they were doing. This act is reflected in many works of the ancient artists who would delve themselves to understand the standards that were used in the ancient days.
In the sixteenth century, antique sculpture and architecture became popular and a subject of concern for prints and eventually helped to come elicit interest in classical art exceeding the reach of the Roman Empire. There were many issues and arts that were seen in the former antiques and arts.
It is really not easy to understand the present without understanding the past. The effect of the ancient Greeks and Romans on our modern world cannot be inflated; this is because the history of three continents Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were shaped by Greece and Rome. The example of Rome particularly drove the Europeans to extend empires across the globe. The great men and women who established the United States took their primary motivation from the ancient Romans and Athenians as modern Americans continue to look to Rome, with its geographically massive and culturally diverse population, for lessons with regards to good and bad governance.
The legacy of the Greeks and Romans is still felt because they invented nearly every literary genre that exists today. The Classics were so central to education for so many centuries, and this made the authors and artists obligated to the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Knowledge of the Classics excavates one’s understanding of the literature and art that surround us presently. The culture of antiquity has since played a significant role in the legendary and artistic endeavors of the middle Ages.
The Dialogues of Plato have been ranked together with the writings of Aristotle as the most significant and dominant theoretical works in Western thought. In both, Plato cast his teacher Socrates as the main disputant in discussions that intensely probe a massive spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues. The most exciting and revelatory are the four dialogues, that is, the Euthyphro , Apology , Crito , and Phaedo, which on themes evoked by the trial and death of Socrates, accused by his enemies and disparagers of crimes against the state, including the immorality and corruption of the youth.
Notker’s work is focused to the working-class lot. This can be learned from the style of prose employed, and the areas in which emphasis is laid, among others. However, in the conflicting side, one gets the impression that Einhard’s work was directed to elite readers like fellow historians, leeches and other intellectuals of the age. For instance, as translator Lewis Thorpe notes in his introduction to the book,
In his introduction Einhard states his aims: they are to write the public history of Charlemagne and to describe the Emperor’s life and his day-to-day habits, omitting nothing which is relevant and yet remaining as succinct as possible….Einhard himself says: ‘I am very conscious of the fact that no one can describe these events more accurately than I, for I was present when they took place and, as they say, I saw them with my own eyes. What is more, I cannot be absolutely sure that these happenings will in fact ever be described by anyone else’. Pg 61
Niccol Machiavelli held the legacy of ancient Greece in such low esteem such that he thought the Renaissance was a period of decline. Machiavellis underestimation of Greek Antiquity could also be ascribed to the fact that he entertained a comparatively low interest in philosophy and the arts. It is very obvious that Machiavelli did not believe that he was living in a Rebirth.
Furthermore, he never believed that he was even living in a province of a booming state. Contrary to the then common belief, he was convinced that a Rebirth would come if his generation or, more likely, future generations counterfeited the ancient Romans. Machiavelli believed that Italy was still stuck in Biondos media aetas , the period which marked the fragmentation of the Roman spirit, a situation which ought to have ended as soon as possible.
Ancient Rome has been admired for being the crystallization point of a world empire, a capital with massive public monuments that reflects the supremacy of the State and the political might of the ancient world's master-race. It is amazing to see the way Mussolini turned the monuments of imperial Rome into validatory symbols of Fascism.
Late Antiquity saw the rise of Christianity under the Roman Imperial cult. Sequential attacks of the Germans finalized the decline of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, while the Eastern Roman Empire persevered throughout the Middle Ages, in a state called the Roman Empire by its citizens, and labeled the Byzantine Empire by later historians. Hellenistic idea was later succeeded by continued developments in areas such as Platonism and Epicureanism, with Neoplatonism in due course influencing the theology.
St. Paul recommends loyalty to the political government which should come out of sincere conscience. He argues that conscience can replace the knowledge of law. According to him, loyalty bridges the gap of disobedience, thus leads to the anticipated communication and peaceful co-existence among people of GOD.
Several individuals have attempted to put a specific date on the symbolic end of antiquity with the most prominent dates being the deposing of the latter Western Roman Emperor, the closing of the last Platonic Academy in Athens by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian and the conquest of much of the Mediterranean by the new Muslim faith. The First Arab Siege of Constantinople and the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople disengaged the economic, cultural, and political links that had traditionally united the classical cultures around the Mediterranean, ending antiquity.
Politically, the late Roman commencement of the Empire as a universal state, headed by one supreme divinely-appointed ruler, united with Christianity as a universal religion likewise headed by a supreme patriarch, proved very influential, even after the disappearance of imperial authority in the west.
