is the study of significant cultural and political events from the beginning of human history until the Early Middle Ages . The goal of the modern day critical ancient historian is objectivity.
The term Classical Antiquity is often used to refer to ancient history since the beginning of Ancient Greek history in about 776 BC . This coincides roughly with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC , the beginning of the history of Ancient Rome .
Although the ending date of ancient history is disputed, currently most Western scholars use the Fall Of The Western Roman Empire in AD 476 as the end of ancient European history.
The span of recorded history is roughly 5 000 – 5 500 years, with Sumerian Cuneiform being the oldest form of writing discovered so far.
Thus, this is the beginning of ''history'' by the definition used by all Historian s.
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The fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is the fact that only a fraction of it has been documented, and only a fraction of those recorded histories have survived into the present day. Literacy was not widespread in any culture until long after the end of ancient history, so there were few people capable of writing histories. Even those written histories which were produced were not widely distributed; the ancients, not having the luxury of a and the study of Primary Sources .
''Main article: Archaeology ''
Archaeology is the study of material remains in an effort to interpret and reconstruct past human behavior. In the study of ancient history, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived.
Some important discoveries by archaeologists studying ancient history include:
Perhaps most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquity's own historians. Although it is important to take into account the bias of each ancient author, their firsthand (or primary) accounts are the basis for our understanding of the ancient past.
Some of the more notable ancient writers include:
Herodotus , Josephus , Livy , Polybius , Suetonius , Tacitus , Thucydides and Sima Qian .
- 753 BC - Founding of Rome (traditional date)
- 751 BC - The Rise of LeChe
- 745 BC - Tiglath-Pileser III becomes the new king of Assyria . With time he conquers neighboring countries and turns Assyria into an empire
- 728 BC - Rise of the Median Empire
- 722 BC - Spring And Autumn Period begins in China; Zhou Dynasty 's power is diminishing; the era of the Hundred Schools Of Thought
- 653 BC - Rise of first Persian state
- 600 BC - Sixteen Maha Janapadas ("''Great Realms''" or "''Great Kingdoms''") emerge. A number of these Maha Janapadas are semi- Democratic Republics .
- c 600 BC - Pandyan Kingdom in South India
- 563 BC - Siddhartha Gautama ( Buddha ), founder of Buddhism is born as a prince of the Shakya Tribe , which ruled parts of Magadha , one of the Maha Janapadas
- 549 BC - Mahavira , founder of Jainism is born
- 546 BC - Foundation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus The Great
- 546 BC - Cyrus the Great overthrows the Lydian kingdom
- 544 BC - Rise of Magadha as the dominant power under Bimbisara .
- 539 BC - The Fall of the Babylonian Empire and liberation of the jews by Cyrus the Great
- 525 BC - Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt
- c. 512 BC - Darius I (Darius the Great) of Persia, Subjugats eastern Thrace, Macedonia submitts voluntarily, and annexes Libya, Persian Empire at largest extent
- 509 BC - Expulsion of the last King Of Rome , founding of Roman Republic (traditional date)
- 500 BC - Panini standardizes the Grammar and Morphology of Sanskrit in the text Ashtadhyayi . Panini's standardized Sanskrit is known as Classical Sanskrit
- 500 BC - Pingala uses Zero and Binary Numeral System .
- 490 BC - Greek city-states defeat Persian invasion at Battle Of Marathon
- 424 BC - Nanda Dynasty comes to power.
- 404 BC - End of Peloponnesian War between the Greek city-states
- 403 BC - Warring States Period begins in China as the Zhou king became a mere figurehead; China is annexed by regional warlords
- 331 BC - Alexander The Great defeats Darius III Of Persia in the Battle Of Gaugamela
- 326 BC - Alexander The Great defeats Indian king Porus ('' Purushottama '') in the Battle Of The Hydaspes River .
- 321 BC - Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha
- 323 BC - Death of Alexander The Great
- 305 BC - Chandragupta Maurya seizes the satrapies of Paropanisadai (Kabul), Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qanadahar) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)from Seleucus I Nicator , the Macedonian Satrap of Babylonia , in return for 500 elephants.
- 273 BC - Ashoka The Great becomes the emperor of the Mauryan Empire
- 250 BC - Rise of Parthia (Ashkâniân), the second native dynasty of ancient Iran
- 232 BC - Death of Emperor Ashoka The Great ; Decline of the Mauryan Empire
- 230 BC - Emergence of Satavahana s in South India
- 221 BC - Qin Shi Huang unifies China, end of Warring States Period ; beginning of Imperial rule in China which lasts until 1912
- 202 BC - Han Dynasty established in China, after the death of Qin Shi Huang ; China in this period officially becomes Confucian state and opens trading connections with the West, i.e. the Silk Road
- 202 BC - Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Battle Of Zama
- c 200 BC - Chera dynasty in South India
- 185 BC - Sunga Empire founded.
- 149 BC - 146 - Third and final Punic War ; destruction of Carthage by Rome
- 146 BC - Roman conquest of Greece,'' see Roman Greece ''
- 110 BC - First Chinese Domination of Vietnam in the form of the Nanyue Kingdom.
- c 100 BC - Chola Dynasty rises in prominence.
- 49 BC - Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey The Great
- 44 BC - Julius Ceaser murdered by Marcus Brutus and others; End of Roman Republic; beginning of Roman Empire
- 6 BC - Earliest theorized date for birth of Jesus Of Nazareth
- 9 - Battle Of The Teutoburg Forest , the Roman Army 's bloodiest defeat
- 14 - Death of Emperor Augustus (Octavian), ascension of his adopted son Tiberius to the throne
- 68 - Year Of The Four Emperors in Rome
- 117 - Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan
- 200 s - The Hindu Srivijaya Empire established in the Malay Archipelago .
- 220 - Three Kingdoms period begins in China after the fall of Han Dynasty
- 226 - Fall of the Parthian Empire and Rise of the Sassanian Empire
- 238 - Defeat of Gordian III (238–244), Philip The Arab (244–249), and Valerian (253–260), by Shapur I of Persia, (Valerian was captured by the Persians).
- 285 - Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Empires
- 313 - Edict Of Milan declared that the Roman Empire would be neutral toward religious worship
- 335 - Samudragupta becomes the emperor of the Gupta Empire
- 378 - Battle Of Adrianople , Roman army is defeated by the Germanic tribes
- 395 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlaws all Pagan religions in favour of Christianity
- 410 - Alaric sacks Rome for the first time since 390 BC
- c. 455 - Skandagupta repels an Indo-Hephthalite attack on India.
- 476 - Romulus Augustus , last Western Roman Emperor is forced to abdicate by Odoacer , a half Hunnish and half Scirian chieftain of the Germanic Heruli ; Odoacer returns the imperial regalia to Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno in Constantinople in return for the title of ''dux'' of Italy ; most frequently cited date for the end of ancient history
The date used as the end of the ancient era is entirely arbitrary and is a matter of some dispute amongst historians. Some other dates that are given for the end of antiquity are:
- {Link without Title} ''Everyman His Own Historian'', Carl Becker (1931) Speech delivered to the American Historical Association
- ''Eyewitness Testimony'', Elizbeth Loftus, Harvard, (1996)
- ''Decoding Ancient History : A toolkit for the historian as detective'', Carol G. Thomas, D.P. Wick, Prentice Hall. (1993)
- ''Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the Ordinary'', Ramsay Mac Mullen, Princeton (1993)
- ''Greeks and the Irrational'', E. R. Dodds, U of Calif Press (1964)
- ''History of Magic and Experimental Science'', Lynn Thorndike (1923)
- ''Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest & Alienation in the Empire'', Ramsay Mac Mullen, Harvard (1966)
- {Link without Title} Directory of Ancient Historians in the USA
- ''The Idea of History'', R.G. Collingwood (1946)
- ''What is History?'', E.H. Carr (Becker 1931, Loftus 1996, Mac Mullen 1990, Thorndike 1923, Mac Mullen 1966, Thomas & Wick 1993)
- ''Project Livius. Articles on Ancient History''
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