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Greece, Rome and Egypt |
| There were a number of civilisations or people that were well known before Jesus was born. The main ones in European history were the Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations. Many students of online universities and colleges around the world devote their studies to learning more about these civilisations. |
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| Greece | Egypt | Rome |
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Greece There were two ancient Greek Civilisations. The first was during the bronze age and up to the start of the iron age, about the time that the Trojan Wars were fought. |
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A Bronze Age Warship of the type probably used by the Greeks during the Trojan Wars |
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The second was later when states were centred on cities like Sparta and Athens. This is when democracy was born in Athens. There were wars with the Persian empire, first on Greek soil and later on Asian soil when Alexander the Great invaded and conquered Persia. Egypt After Alexander's death his generals became kings of parts of his empire. One of these kingdoms was Egypt and it was the descendants of one of these kings that were ruling Egypt when Julius Caesar visited the country when he was chasing one of his enemies. Caesar fell in love with Cleopatra and made her Queen of Egypt, probably just to make sure that Egypt kept on supplying Rome with food - at that time Egypt was known as the bread basket of Rome. |
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Rome Rome was a city in Italy that was founded about 750 years before Jesus by Romulus and Remus, who were thought to be descendants of the Trojans who fled when Troy was destroyed by the Greeks. |
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"Roman Legionnaires" |
At first
Rome was ruled by kings but then the kings were thrown out and Rome became
a Republic ruled by a Senate, a collection of people usually from the rich
and important people of Rome. About 50 years before Jesus was born there was a civil war between Julius Caesar and his enemies. Julius won the war but was later killed by members of the Senate because they thought that he wanted to be a king. This led to some more wars that were eventually won by Octavian, Julius Caesars adopted son. Octavian made changes to Roman laws and the Republic became an empire with Octavian as the first Emperor - Caesar Augustus. |
| During his wars Julius Caesar sent regular reports back to Rome to tell the people about his victories and achievements. | |
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Due to many wars Rome had become the ruler of all of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and some beyond. For nearly 400 years after the birth of Jesus Rome was the most important civilisation in Europe. |
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To make it easier to rule, the Empire was split in two: a Western Empire ruled from Rome and an Eastern Empire ruled from Constantinople near Turkey. Barbarians eventually conquered Rome and the Western Empire but the Eastern Empire carried on for a very long time after. |
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