西方思想经典导读第一讲.ppt

From the Pre-Greek Time to Roman Period The General Structure: Pre-Greek Period Greek Culture Roman Culture Two Main Parts: Mesopotamian and Egyptian Culture Time: 5 to 6 thousand years ago and shortly after that at the end of the 4th millennium B.C. Geography: Mesopotamia near the Tigris and Euphrates River and Egypt around the Nile Siganificance: Although westerners are more ready to recognize their roots in Greek Civilization, actually western civilization was born in the ancient Near East. The word “Mesopotamia” is in origin a Greek name – “land between the rivers”, is a toponym for the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwestern Iran. Mesopotamia is characterized by constant warfare and a succession of shifting empires. Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. (阿契美尼德帝国).  It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC and after his death it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthians. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia (particularly Assyria) coming under periodic Roman control. In 226 AD, it fell to the Sassanid Persians, and remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Arab Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. A number of primarily Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD. Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now t