1.1 The Classical Period and the Medieval Period
1.1.1 Western Cultures in the Classical Period
The Classical period (1200–476 bc) generally refers to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. These were one of the major sources of Western cultures. The period had a great impact on the evolution of Western cultures, covering their educational institutions, their way of discussing official business, their civic organizations and spiritual pursuits, and Westerners’ mindset as well. The ancient Greeks and Romans embody the richness of Classical civilization and the Western cultural tradition, as extolled in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘To Helen’:
The glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome!
1.1.1.1 Ancient Greek Civilization
1.1.1.1.1 Historical Background
Greece was the cradle of Western civilization. Ancient Greece is the name given to a region rather than a country, mainly referring to the land around the Aegean Sea, including the Greek Peninsula, islands in the Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea, and the coastal land of what is now southwestern Turkey, western Italy and eastern Sicily. Food provision in ancient Greece depended largely on imports, due to its lack of arable land and low summer rainfall. Situated as it was on coastal land, though, Greece was advanced in shipbuilding and commerce. Geographically and economically favorable conditions assisted in the birth and growth of Greek civilization.
1.1.1.1.2 Major Achievements of Ancient Greek Civilization
As the most important and direct source of Western civilization, ancient Greek civilization had, during the 1000 years of its development, a much more prolonged and profound influence on Western history than any other civilization. The early Greek culture can be traced back to the Minoan culture more than 4000 years ago, and the Mycenaean culture of the fifteenth to thirteenth centuries BC. The recorded literature and art of the West also originated in Greece, and the invention of written words provided the foundation for the commencement and development of literature and other disciplines. Starting from Minoan culture, Greek civilization lasted for over 2000 years, leaving an immense cultural heritage for later generations, primarily in poetry, mythology, philosophy and theater.
- 1.PoetryThe epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, purportedly composed by the blind poet Homer, were probably created by the Greek people collectively and spread by word of mouth. Taking the ten-year war between Greece and Troy as the background, the Iliad gives an account of the events which happen in the fifty days before the war ends. The Odyssey tells the story of how the Greek hero Odysseus manages to survive and return home after ten years of traveling on the sea, despite every obstacle being thrown at him. These two epic poems supply significant material for the historical study of ancient Greek politics, religion, ethics, language, and so on.Ancient Greece is also well known for its influential prose. The famous fables of Aesop were widely circulated after being rewritten in the form of metrical poetry by Babrius. Among these fables, “The Farmer and the Viper” and “The Tortoise and the Hare” are the most popular to this day for the profound meaning behind them.
- 2.MythologyMythology and religion are the most foundational aspects of culture. Ancient Greek religion was polytheistic and animistic, and is inseparable from Greek mythology. The intrinsic feature of ancient Greek mythology was that its gods resembled human beings in their forms but were extraordinary in their powers. Greek mythology is chiefly concerned with stories of Gaia, the goddess of the earth; Ouranos, the god of sky; the twelve Titans; Zeus, father of gods and men; and Zeus’ wife Hera. Hesiod rendered a complete picture of myths about the origin of the world and the Greek pantheon, and the relationship among these gods, in his Theogony.
- 3.PhilosophyGreece made the greatest achievements in philosophy. The term ‘philosophy’ originated in Greek, with some basic concepts in philosophy, such as materialism, idealism, and dialectics, also deriving from ancient Greek culture. Greek philosophy has been seen as the precursor of the break from the shackles of religion. Socrates’ opposition of mind and matter, Plato’s idealism and Aristotle’s ontology were the philosophical origins of Western rationalism. Socrates, the first philosopher who exerted an epoch-making influence on the development of Western philosophy, focused on the relation between knowledge and ethics, encouraged rationalism, and was well-known for his question-and-answer (dialectical) method of philosophical study. Plato, a student of Socrates, created his famous idealism, asserting that behind the sensible forms of the world there are real universal ideas, which are a much higher level of reality. In his masterpiece The Republic, Plato presented how his idea can be applied to the political field. As a student of Plato and a polymath, Aristotle was not only a great philosopher like his teacher, but also a scientist and logician. His doctrine of the primacy of the objective world directly refuted Plato’s idealism, marking the cultural turn from subjectivity and mysticism to objectivity and reasoning. Aristotle’s deductive method and use of syllogism had a significant influence on later generations.
- 4.TheaterTheater was the greatest achievement of ancient Greek literary civilization. It was divided into tragedy, comedy and satyr plays. Tragedies and comedies are formal performances with satyr plays following as an addition. The representative dramatists of Greek theater include three tragic poets (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) and three comic poets (Cratinus, Eupolis, and Aristophanes). Aeschylus, known as the father of tragedy, wrote The Persians and Prometheus Bound. Aristophanes, the father of comedy, was the author of The Birds and The Acharnians.
1.1.1.2 Ancient Roman Civilization
1.1.1.2.1 Historical Background
Ancient Roman Civilization, another essential source of Western civilization, originated in Rome in what is now Italy. Italy is surrounded by sea in the east, south and west, while the north is mountainous. With its moderate climate and abundant rainfall, Italy was well developed in agriculture, and various ethnic groups inhabited the area. During their overseas expansion, the ancient Romans began to have contact with neighboring Greece and its advanced culture. The ancient Romans gradually became the masters of the Mediterranean area through conquest and expansion; however, they admired the splendid ancient Greek civilization and borrowed its glorious achievements.
1.1.1.2.2 Major Achievements of Ancient Roman Civilization
Western Classical culture sprang up in Greece and was carried forward in Rome. The Romans not only adapted the Greek alphabet, created Latin, inherited and borrowed the form and the essence of ancient Greek culture, but also made their own contributions comparable to those made by their predecessors in politics, warfare, law, architecture, and other areas.
- 1.Politics and LawThe political institution for which the ancient Romans are best remembered, the republic, was a very effective means of government in the Classical period. The development of the Roman Empire was a history of continuous conquest and expansion. During the process, the Roman Empire’s most impressive achievement was the founding of a single political entity that unified different Mediterranean countries, thereby transcending the limited authority of city-states. Though the ancient Greek philosophers had imagined the possibility of a unified world, Greek politics did not engender a power strong enough to realize it. Nevertheless, the Roman Empire overcame the narrow-mindedness that bound the life led in city-states to develop a system of law and citizenship that was put into effect across the whole empire.The ancient Romans devised the most comprehensive and influential legal system in the ancient world. The Law of The Twelve Tables was the earliest law which was typically Roman, and later Roman Law expanded gradually into the three parts of jus civil, jus genti, and jus naturale, while the Codex Justinianus, codified in ad 529, symbolized the completion of Roman Law.
- 2.Alphabet and LiteratureThe written form of the ancient Roman language called Latin was codified in about 600 bc. Classical Latin had an alphabet of twenty-three letters, but expanded to twenty-six letters in the Middle Ages. Latin letters became the most prevalent alphabet among the various writing systems in the world due to their simplicity and symmetry in form, and hence their convenience for reading and writing. Latin became a universal language in the era of the Roman Empire. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and other languages that have evolved from Latin are included under the general term of Latin dialects. Ancient Roman literature was composed of poems and theatre, with early Roman literature taking the form of folk poetry. Lucius Livius Andronicus was referred to as the first Roman poet and the father of the Latin literature, whose major contribution to Roman literature lay in the translation of the Odyssey into Latin, which therefore became the first teaching material in ancient Roman literature. Other prominent playwrights of the period included Plautus and Terence. Major works of the former include Miles Gloriosus, Aulularia and Menaechmi, and of the latter Hecyra and Adelphoe.Prose and poetry comprise a large proportion of Roman literary works. Cicero, whose works include Against Catiline and Against Mark Antony, was considered Rome’s greatest prose stylist, and had a great influence on the development of the Roman arts of oration and prose. Julius Caesar’s importance was felt not only in the political arena but also in culture, as reflected in his works The Gallic War and The Civil War. Virgil, Horace and Ovid were prominent poets. Virgil’s masterpiece was the Aeneid, Horace’s the Odes, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In addition, the appearance of Christian literature was a great achievement.
- 3.ArchitectureAncient architecture and engineering reached their zenith in the Roman period. Stylistically, ancient Roman architecture was embodied by arches and domes, which combined military utility with practical use. Aesthetically, grand arches in the middle of the building produced a sense of grandness and vividness. According to their functions, ancient Roman buildings were categorized as fortifications, religious buildings, public facilities, memorial spaces, or places of public entertainment. Excellent representatives included the forums, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, amphitheaters, temples, and so on.
1.1.2 The Middle Ages
The Middle Ages was a period of 1000 years between the Classical period and the Renaissance. The Germanic invasions of the fifth century and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire marked the end of ancient Western society and the beginning of the Middle Ages, which ended in the fifteenth century.
1.1.2.1 Historical Background
Feudalism formed during the period from the fifth century to the early tenth century. Since the third century, Europe had witnessed enormous ethnic migrations, as northern peoples moved westwards after the invasion of the Roman Empire and its subsequent collapse, to protect themselves from the Asian nomadic Tartars and to fight against each other for land. Chaos and conquests led to cultural depression in the period. The eighth century was of great importance in medieval history, as this was when aristocratic magnates came to power. From the eighth century to the eleventh century, feudalism and the estate of aristocracy gradually came into being in Europe. Self-sufficient manorial agriculture and limited local trade constituted almost the whole European economy, with backward agricultural production methods and low productivity precluding much progress from being made. Europe entered a flourishing period from the eleventh century as feudalism was consolidated. Agricultural production methods developed rapidly, productivity improved and commerce recovered. Venice, Genoa, Pisa and other cities became important ports, and the prosperity of commerce accelerated urban growth and the rise of the bourgeoisie. As of the fourteenth century, Europe was plunged into an abyss of stunted agriculture, ruinous wars and, consequently, a nearly bankrupt economy. This period also witnessed an institutional crisis in the Church, which in turn led to a crisis of faith.
1.1.2.2 Major Achievements in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages has long been regarded as being barbarous, backward, dark and retrogressive in nature. Since the third century, Germanic peoples from northern Europe had begun to migrate south and southeast, putting pressure on the borders of the Roman Empire and eventually attacking the empire and occupying its territories. Wars and chaos were the keynote of the first 100 years of the Middle Ages. The Germanic invasions changed and redrew the political map of Europe, and constituted a severe blow to Western culture. In addition, the domination of the Church smothered the rationalism of Greek civilization, and spiritual life was overshadowed by the beliefs of Christianity, whose dark side and confinement of the mind blocked social progress. Classical humanism and rationalism were replaced by Christian culture based on God as the first cause of the world, and on religious and superstitious beliefs. In this sense, humanists assert, the Greco-Roman period and the Renaissance period were two great periods in man’s development, while the Middle Ages intervened between these two culturally brilliant periods as a short interlude of darkness and backwardness.
However, for Western Europe, the Middle Ages, an extremely critical period of man’s development, was the true beginning of the history of the European continent. As a ...