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The Sumerians. Ancient EgyptTHE

Four and a half thousand years deep into Time from the twenty-first century. The territory of southern Iraq. Cuneiform, wheel, brewing. As a small village, Babylon is formed. The Sumerians are dissolved in foreign nations. The Babylonian kingdom rises, flourishes for several centuries, but is ruined by the Hittites (the territory of the south of modern Turkey). The Hittites are at war with Egypt, they clean up its provinces, but, unable to survive the bronze collapse – the loss of writing and skills, they lose to the «peoples of the sea» who came from the Balkans and Asia Minor.

Emerging from the nomineum of Ashur (center of Iraq) Assyria absorbs the territories of modern Turkey, Syria, Israel and Egypt. Babylon preserves autonomy, raises an uprising, perishes and is rebuilt in seventy years. Assyria is tired of fighting, the Scythians, descended from the mountains, are wandering through its territory, without encountering resistance. Media and Babylon gather armies, destroy the capital of Assyria, Nineveh, and all this is an unparalleled cruel military state.

The bloodthirst of the Assyrians (perhaps somewhat biased) is narrated by the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament):

«All who have heard the news of your death will applaud, for to whom did not your malice constantly spread?»

Ancient Egypt (Lat-Ayguptus, Hebrew-Mizraim, Arabic-Masr, self-name Ta-Kemet, Ta-meri, Black Earth) was founded five thousand years ago by Menes and his people who arrived, presumably from the coast of Western India. Remember: Early kingdom, Ancient, Middle and New. Pharaoh Psammetich expels Assyrians, but independence does not last long: in the fifth century BC Egypt is captured by Persia. In the third century BC, the Hellenic Ptolemaic dynasty began to reign in the country. In total, along with it, Egypt is ruled by 32 succeeding dynasties – more than monarchs from other countries, in their entire history.

In the first century BC, with the death of the son of Cleopatra and Caesar, Caesarion, Egypt passes into the hands of the Romans, since the beginning of the eighth century AD, it has been dominated by the Arabs.

Until the Late Period, the Egyptians do not know coins: they are replaced by bags of grain, just over 40 kg., And the so-called debins – ingots of copper or silver in 91 grams.

The kitchen, as a rule, does not have a roof, has a simple millstone for grinding grain, and an oven. The basis of the diet – wheat buns with a variety of additives. In honor – beer «hake», sweetish, 10 degrees, with the addition of mandrake, anise, saffron, other psychedelic drugs.

The temples of Egypt are not meant for mass meetings; Only the priests are engaged in worship. The basis of religion is the need to collect after death its disconnected «aspects» in order to continue to exist in a spiritual form.

Greece and Persia

Thousand hundred years BC – the beginning of the so-called. polis period, the invasion of the Dorians from the north (in pure form, the Spartans), the high achievements of culture and social order. Sparta for some time dominates the Greek world with Athens on a par with. Persia concludes with the Greeks a world that Sparta must follow for observance.

By the time (492 BC), Darius the First founded the Achaemenid empire, including Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, reaching to India. Accusing the Greeks of violating the union treaty (framed by the «small text» as the protectorate of the Asian state), he invades Greece, but gets repulsed (Marathon battle, 20 years after the battle of Thermopylae, Salamis battle, Plataeus – the expulsion of his son Xerxes).

In the First Peloponnesian (Civil) War, Sparta gained the upper hand, captured Athens, completed the golden age of democracy by the accession of its own oligarchy, devoid of any creative origin. This ceases to please numerous colonies. Eventually, the troops of Thebes (a policy somewhat north of Athens) and the revived Athens themselves, reconcile, unite, free the helots, push the Dorians to their peninsula – where they become, in their own way, a relic, gradually evolving into ordinary Greeks.

Macedonia (the northern part of the Balkans), up to that time, being an ally of Xerxes, places its garrisons on all the still sovereign Greek policies, is preparing to attack Persia.

Alexander of Macedon conquers Persia in 330 BC; in another seven years the state breaks up into Seleucia, Parthia and Egypt. In Egypt, Ptolemy reigns, becoming a new pharaoh.

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1. Assyria is an unparalleled cruel military state, perhaps the first super-drajava in history. Destroyed Scythians, Medes and Babylonians.

2. Developed incredibly, swallowed Israel and Egypt, the Babylonian kingdom.

3. The state of things before the attack of Darius on Greece (which is nominally part of his empire). Let’s pay attention: Macedonia is an ally of Persia.

The beginning of the Chinese civilization. Twenty-eight centuries BC. The first state covered by written sources is Shan-Yin. In the seventh century BC. conquered by the commander of Wu-Wan, now called Zhou. The heyday of Confucianism (the fourth century BC) and Taoism. Zhou is divided into seven belligerent states – Qin, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Yan, Chu. In the two centuries before our era, Emperor Qin Shihuandi conquers them and unites the Qin empire. The parts of the walls of individual northern kingdoms also unite, forming the Great Wall of China. The dictator rules by cruel methods, destroys scientists burns books, however, soon after his death, this entire order, together with the state (and dynasty) Qin, is disintegrating.

Ancient Rome

Seven centuries BC – the foundation of the capital. Two centuries – the royal period. Then – the Republic, invasion of the Gauls, geese, «grief defeated». The war with Great Greece – King Pyrrhus and the catastrophic Pyrrhic victory.

The First Punic War. The struggle with Carthage for Sicily, the foundation of the fleet after the model of a Carthaginian ship thrown ashore by the storm. The action is transferred to Africa, where the victories of the Romans entail euphoria, and then a serious defeat. Remnants of the army are evacuated, on the way back the fleet dies in a storm.

Actions are transferred to Sicily, where the troops of Carthage are commanded by Hamilcar Barca. The forces of the parties are depleted, the Carthaginian fleet is defeated by the curtain. Carthage pays a solid indemnity and renounces Sicily.

The Second Punic War – two centuries BC – Hamilcar Barca perishes, leaving three sons – Hannibal, Magon and Hasdrubal. Hannibal crosses to Italy through the Alps, defeats the Romans at Cannes, after a year tries to take Rome, but for some reason (a thunderstorm interpreted by both sides as the wrath of the gods, or the fall of a meteorite) the battle will not take place. The Romans seize the allied Carthage of Syracuse, and the great scientist of antiquity, Archimedes, dies. The Thirty-thousandth Corps of the Romans, under the command of Scipio of Africa, lands in Africa, makes alliances with local Libyan tribes, and defeats Carthage’s army. Hannibal runs to the king of Antioch, to the south of modern Turkey, takes part in battles against Rome, the second time after the battle of Zama, personally meets Scipio. Then he moves to become Armenia, independent of the Seleucids, where he leads the construction of the capital near modern-day Yerevan, then Bithynia (northern Turkey). The Bithynian king, wishing peace, decides to extradite Hannibal, but the Carthaginian general accepts the poison.

Fifty years of peace, all contributions paid, in 149 BC. the third Punic war begins. Violating the terms of the treaty, the Carthaginians rebuff the local tribe of the Libyans, the official ally of Rome. The thought of Cato the Elder, «Cartago dilindum ess» – Carthage must be destroyed, «repeated every time at a meeting of the Senate, becomes one of the motives for the existence of the Romans. Landed in Africa, the troops begin a siege. Three years later Carthage was taken, burned, plowed, covered with salt for 17 days, so that even the spirits of its former inhabitants could not appear here. The capital of the new Roman province of Africa is the city of Utica, located a few kilometers from the former capital of the eastern power, formerly a stronghold of Roman legionaries. The civilization of Puno-Phoenician Canaanites is almost completely destroyed.

…The Roman Republic, undergoing the tyranny of Sulla and Gaius Maria, hardly reflects the new invasion of the Gauls and Teutons. Then comes the rebellion of Spartacus. Ten years after the suppression of the mutiny, the Caesar-Pompeii-Crass triumvirate is created. Crassus, along with seven legions, perishes in Parthia, (modern Iran and Turkmenistan) formed from the Seleucid state.

Fifty years BC. – the rise of Caesar, the war in the territory of modern France, a brief invasion of Britain. With the death of his wife Pompey, daughter of Caesar, the relative and spiritual ties break down, the commander crosses the Rubicon River, captures Rome. Civil war takes more than a quarter of Roman male citizens. Pompey is trying to hide in Egypt, but is dying off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea under unclear circumstances.

Caesar starts a romance with the heiress of the pharaohs Cleopatra, which, in the end, leads to the inclusion of Egypt in the composition of Rome.

Ancient China

Two hundred years BC. – After the death of Shihuandi in the Han empire, Confucianism is reborn (jusue, school of scribes) – a philosophy that replaces China with religion. Han exists for six hundred years, it is replaced by the Jin dynasty. With it, in the fourth century, North China is captured by the Huns. Two centuries, the Chinese assimilate them, turning into themselves, so that the next dynasty restores the state in full.

…A new series of wars, enlargement of kingdoms, crushing, eventually leads to the emergence of a flourishing, very advanced Tang Empire (636—907), in the east of modern China. The dynasty controls part of Central Asia – Sogdiana, the territory of present-day Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. A native of these regions, the border governor of the «tszedushi» in the service of the emperor, An Lushan persuades the latter to replace a significant number of officers of the «titular nation» at the court with the mercenaries who were loyal to the Sogdian. The further move is the almost unhindered formation of our own army, a campaign to the capital of Chang’an (now the sub-provincial Xian, the location of the famous terracotta army of Qin Shihuandi). Next – a series of intrigues, battles, invasions, wars of all against all, for the emperor, the idea, finally just for food. Soldiers, or simply murderers, are women and children. The greatest city of that time, with a million population, because of the specially thought-out layout of the quarters resembling a chessboard, Chang’an turns into a pile of ruins. All roads of the country are filled with corpses. Water in the lakes for months retains a purple color. According to pedantic census-takers and tax collectors, China’s 50 million people of that time are losing 36 million of their inhabitants. Perhaps some of them do not die, but simply move to another area, however, the An Lushan revolt is considered the largest (after World War II) armed conflict in terms of the number of victims in the history of mankind.

Under the Song dynasty, in the 12th century, China captured the South Manchurian tribe of the Jurchens, bringing the country to a new round of assimilation. In the beginning of the 13th century, almost 300 thousand army invaded the Middle Kingdom from the North. With each new campaign, the Mongols are moving farther south. Powder charges, rockets, primitive artillery are widely used, many millions die. The capital of Zhunda (Dadu) – modern Beijing was invaded in 1264, after 16 years, the whole of China is surrendered. The grandson of Genghis Khan, Khan Khubilai proclaims the creation of the Yuan dynasty, otherwise – Their Yuan Uls is the Great Yuan state. At the same time, four ulus of the Mongols emerge from under one government.

Expeditions to Japan and Vietnam are not successful: in the first case, in part, due to irresistible external (weather) reasons. For the first time in the world, paper banknotes of chao are massively and successfully introduced. The economy, however, is greatly feverish: most Chinese are enslaved, lose their skills and any enthusiasm, agriculture and trade are in decline, the most complicated irrigation system ceases to function.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, the secret organization White Lotus organizes the people to fight the invaders. The Mongols are pushed to the north, to their steppes. One of the leaders of the insurrection – the son of a peasant Zhu Yuanzhang – comes to power and establishes the Ming dynasty. This period is marked by the flowering of science, crafts, shipping, etc. Organized in particular, a huge ocean expedition led by Admiral Zheng He. The «Golden Fleet» consists of 40—60 «treasure trove» baochuan, 117 meters long, 48 wide, and 200 escort ships of more modest size. The staff of the expedition is 27—28 thousand people.

A total of seven voyages, after which the ships are dismantled, the reports are destroyed. China adopts a strictly isolationist policy.

Meanwhile, the Jurchen from South Manchuria recall the past: at first they stop paying tribute to central China, then unite with Inner Mongolia and organize mass raids on the former metropolis. Moving farther south and west, they capture the last bastion of resistance – the island of Taiwan in 1683. Now China is named after the Manchurian dynasty and empire – Qing. Aliens try not to allow mixed marriages, but they do not oppose their culture to the local, and quickly become Chinese. By the beginning of the 19th century the population of Qing was 300 million people.

Chinese goods are in great demand in Europe, however, the Chinese recognize only silver and gold as payment, as well as Russian fur and Venetian glass. This approach to doing business is completely unhappy with the British, who bring into China from India a product that is becoming more and more popular among all segments of the population – opium. Sun-dried milky juice of immature bollocks of opium poppy contains morphine, codeine, narcotin and another 17 alkaloids. By 1830 the sales volume reaches 1500 tons, 35% of the population become drug addicts. The Chinese emperor introduces a ban on this simple happiness, after which his empire is attacked by the main drug dealer – Great Britain. China loses the war, pays a huge contribution, passes the winner to Hong Kong Island (formally rented for 99 years).

In 1851, the Taiping uprising is taking place, organized by the Chinese Christian Hun Xucuan. The idea is the expulsion of the Manchus, the foundation of the Taiping Kingdom of Heaven (Taiping Tian Guo), or, otherwise, the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Tranquility (or «Welfare»). The millionth Christian army of the Taiping is distinguished by its iron discipline, at the same time, by the humane attitude to the local population, the absence of robberies and cruelties. The basis of society in the occupied territories is a community of 25 families, other hierarchies and estates, as well as religions, are being eliminated.

After twelve years of this confrontation, marked by the emergence of new foci of insurgencies, the Second Opium War is taking place – approximately in the same scenario, and with a similar result. In everything there is both bad and good; for example, China is completely out of international isolation.

Hong Xiu-chuan, hardly from the very beginning of the Liberation campaign, withdraws from worldly affairs, gives himself up to prayers and meditations. Meanwhile, his generals continue to struggle, including, among themselves. Also, considering Europeans as brethren by faith, the Taiping can not figure out why those – English and French – turned against them with weapons. Recall, the army of the Kingdom of Heaven, categorically prohibits smoking opium and, moreover, zealously destroys everything connected with Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Eventually, the besieged capital of the Taiping, Nanjing, disappears in a huge fire, Hong Xiu-suan commits suicide, his son, the young heir to the throne, ends his life on the block. The last units of the Heavenly Kingdom, after a desperate attempt to storm Peking, perish on August 16, 1868.

In total, during the Taiping uprising, 20 to 30 million people were killed. The Chinese authorities, up to the present day, are trying to limit the spread of Christianity. So, in 1900, during the uprising of theirs, the supporters of traditional beliefs, as a rule of Buddhism, destroyed almost all Christians of Beijing (the Chinese). At the same time, China occupies the forces of Germany, Russia, Japan, win, receive an indemnity of 450 million silver lans (ingot in 31 grams), open the Celestial world even more fully.

In 1908, the throne rises two-year-old Emperor Pu I. Three years later flashes the so-called. Wuchang Uprising, which, in the end, leads to the collapse of the Qing Empire and the proclamation of the Chinese Republic. Then Tibet and Mongolia depart from China.

Aisingoro Pu Yi, who was Henry, as the European teacher called him, and Xundi – «The Forsaken Emperor» – since 1932 the emperor of the puppet republic Manzhou-go, formed by the Japanese. In 1945, captured by a Soviet airborne near Mukden, was held in a prison camp near Khabarovsk, testified at the Tokyo trial as a witness. Returned to China, 9 years re-educated through the system of Mao Zedong, then released. He worked in Beijing, first in the botanical garden, then modest archivist in the national library

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1. Compass Lo-Pan, the tool of the ancient method of correctly determining the state of things, in all senses. Feng Shui (lit. – «wind and water»), the science that has gone through the ages determines, in particular, with the help of an appropriate compass, which sectors in the house correspond to the energies of the head of the family, mistress, children, where to spend leisure, or to work. The simplest – the South, the zone of glory, should abound in red, lights, heat. Water symbols are forbidden in it, it is not recommended to place figures of birds of prey, pictures of battles, weapons themselves, blue, black, purple… So in all sectors, with some reservations and amendments. This is only a science, there is no religious component in it. The school of the form pays less attention to the location of the room relative to the magnetic lines of the Earth and regulates a number of simple things. On the person should not be directed sharp edges, edges of overlappings, floors, etc., beds should be placed head to the capital wall, double beds – to provide independent their departure in both directions. You can not sleep with your feet to the door, sit with your back to the exit. Mirror should in no case «look» at the bed, etc., etc.

2. Banner or coat of arms with the motto, the symbol of Taipin’s «Heavenly Kingdom.»

3. The first running paper money in the world, promissory notes-banknotes of the Chao, the Song dynasty, the 11th century. The circulation of the banknote is limited to a time interval of three years.

Ancient Rome from Octavin Augustus

A little earlier than the beginning of our era. Octavian Augustus and Marcus Antonius divide Rome into the East and the West. Mark falls under the influence of Cleopatra, who does not mind becoming the queen of Rome itself, gets involved in the war with the Senate and Octavian Augustus. Alternating feasts with military preparations, he misses the blows of the metropolis, and, in the end, commits suicide. The charms of the thirty-nine-year-old Cleopatra do not work for the winner, the heiress of the pharaohs has to follow the example of Antony. She has four children; seventeen-year-old Caesarion, the son of Caesar, by order of Augustus, killed, two twins from Antony are brought up by Augustus’s sister, nothing is known about the fate of the fourth.

The emperor Tiberius, stepson and heir of Augustus, is allegedly strangled personally by his great-nephew, his successor, during an attack of illness. Having risen to the summit of power, Caligula builds bridges from ships, luxurious floating palaces, deals with senators – and he is loved by the people for the lack of hypocrisy. Zarezan own bodyguards. The new emperor, Claudius is memorable for Messalina, who has become the nominal image of a lascivious wife. His next wife is Agrippina, the middle sister of Caligula, who already has the son of Nero. Her plot reaches its goal; Nero becomes emperor. However, his reign does not like the mother, who is going to lead to power the son of Claudius and Agrippina, Britannica. Nero in time feeds the opponent with poisoned mushrooms. The mother tries to poison, too, but she takes the invention of the eastern king, Mithradates Evpator, in time, an effective antidote. Unable to drown the mother during the staged shipwreck (in the past hobby of Agrippina – diving for sea sponges), Nero directs the text to order the naval officer to stab it.

Nero’s policy of reducing taxes brought him popular popularity. But, after the death of Agrippina, the emperor falls into depression, loses his former administrative grip. Restoration of Rome after the fire, the construction of the Golden Palace an area of a kilometer and a half (with a giant pool-pond in the middle), digging a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, as well as constant orgies drain the treasury. Legions rise in the provinces, and on one remarkable morning Nero does not find in his palace any of the Praetorian guards. The emperor runs to the country house, realizing that everything is over, asks a freedman to help him commit suicide. The last phrase of Nero – «what an artist dies» – «Qualis artifeh pere».

Next come the brutal but well-made emperors Titus and his son Vespasian (suppressed the uprising in Judea), Vespasian’s younger brother, Domitian, deified himself and family members, persecuted the Stoics and Christians, killed by his own servant for the execution of Nero’s assistant in suicide.

After the Emperor Galba, the «Golden Autumn of the Empire» comes, five worthy rulers come to power – Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Ver and Marcus Aurelius. After them, the epoch of «soldier emperors», chosen by the troops and the Praetorian guard, opens. The coming to power in 323 of Constantine the Great, the victorious competitor, one of such soldiers’ choices marks the transition of the state to Christianity. Forty years later, Julian (the Renegade) is trying to reanimate paganism, he calls on the priests of Jupiter to be as pious as the Christian priests, but these efforts prove to be useless. The last emperor – Romulus Augustul, still a boy, sent to the exile by the German leader Odoakr; He knows little about his fate, except that he may have become a monk. Year 476 is considered the last year of antiquity, although Odoakr ruled the remnants of Western Rome – Italy and part of Gaul by formal permission of the emperor of the Eastern Empire.

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1. The Roman Empire of its heyday (around 177 AD). Since 180, the death of the last worthy emperor of the era of the Golden Autumn of the Empire, Marcus Aurelius, in fact, the era of the legendary Antiquity, spectacular productions, is coming to an end. Rome is waiting for the extinction of the old institutions of power, a series of defeats, the loss of the sense of the existence of a superpower and a change of religion.

…Spartacus (Latin Spartacus), 110—70 years old. BC, the leader of the risen gladiators in the territory of modern Italy. No images; by the decision of the Senate, the Romans tried to forget memory (Damnatio memoriae – damnathio memorial) about such an amazing and unpleasant event for them.

In the youth of great Rome, (fifth-second century BC), slaves (servus) are quite rare, sometimes they have the status of family members. The second-first centuries BC, the beginning of a new era, are marked by an increase in the number of prisoners of war, as well as debtors from provinces unable to pay a high Roman tax, usurious interest, and also receiving an appropriate stigma. Over time, the ratio of the number of free people to servants in Italy is 2.5: 1, in the whole of Rome about 10: 1, and the situation of the latter is substantially deteriorating. Still, in many cases slaves have a hope of improving their situation, a free certificate from the master, his family name and further, practically unlimited movement on the social ladder. At least two emperors of Rome, at the beginning of their career, were ordinary slaves. Such an institution of ascent allows you to cut off unnecessary national ambitions (i-de marcoman, cimbri, volsk, frank, etc., my tribe is the best, the rest are worthless) and create – a trader, architect, military leader, teacher – patriots of great Rome.

The price of a slave in the first century BC. is 4—400 denarii, depending on the degree of success of the last war. At the same time, the daily salary of a legionary is 1 denarius, (otherwise, 4 sesterces or 16 asses at a time), including bonuses; for this amount you can buy 20 loaves of bread, or, at your option, 4 liters of ordinary wine, or a liter of beautiful Falern.

If you count on gold, whose price, as an opportunity to purchase basic material goods, surprisingly, almost unchanged, the soldier earns 35,000 rubles a month (2016).

Gladiator games last until the reign of the last emperor of the integral Roman Empire – Flavius Theodosius (370—395). The very institution of slavery comes to naught gradually, with a general softening of the morals of slaveholders and lawyers – usually taking the side of oppressed servs. But, alas, the baton of this low phenomenon is intercepted by serfdom. Under Diocletian (284—305) a law is issued, attaching peasants – both colonies (tenants) and landowners, as well as artisans (blacksmiths, merchants) or to the place of residence, or to a certain profession that is now inherited.

2, 2a. Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin Gaius Iulius Caesar), 100—44 BC. Ancient Roman statesman, dictator, great pontiff (lit. «The builder of bridges»), high priest. Representative of the patrician class. In his youth he avoids the unleashed Sulla, the civil war, and also the execution, as a relative of one of the enemies of this dictator. It is not known for certain whether Gaius Julius participated in suppressing the uprising of Spartacus; according to some reports, he, a military tribune (one of six in the legion, ruling for two months), prepared recruits. 63 BC. – thanks to connections, popularity and money, young Caesar becomes a great pontiff. 60 BC. – the creation of a triumvirate («union of three husbands»); Pompeii-Crassus-Caesar. 58 BC. – the beginning of the Gali war; it kills about a million Gauls (including civilians). 49 BC. – the beginning of the civil war in ancient Rome; Caesar and ambition, against Pompey and the corrupt Republic. 45 BC. – Battle of Mund (Spain), the hardest of all, conducted by Caesar. The 30,000 rebellious Pompeians are killed, the dictator for the first time in history holds a triumph after the victory of the Romans over the Romans. In the same year on coins for the first time appears the image of a living person – of course, Caesar.

44 BC. – Guia Julia is murdered by conspirators, led by Mark Brutus (possibly the illegitimate son of the dictator), the body burns the people – at the stake from their own mourning clothes, judges’ chairs, benches, etc., after which the Civil War in a bloodless country flares up with renewed vigor.

2a. Guy Julius Caesar, the only authentic, lifetime sculpture, quite different from the generally accepted images of a relatively young Caesar (2).

3. Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, the adopted son of Caesar, his successor, who finally won the Civil War, the first virtual Roman emperor.4. Guy Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula), 12—41 gg. AD, the second emperor, by definition of Lucius Seneca «boundless depravity combined with unlimited power.» Eight months after the ascension to the throne, the initially peaceful Caligula becomes ill, perhaps encephalitis, having recovered, she becomes an insane dictator. Favorite expression – «Let them hate, if only they should be afraid» – Oderint, dum metuant (observer, doom mit (y) guy). In 41, the conspirators surround the emperor in one of the underground passages from the theater to the baths. The last thing that Caligula hears – the formula used in the sacrifice – hoc age – «Do this» (ok aje) – after that gets a sword in the chest from his bodyguard.

Together with Caesar, Praetorians kill his wife and two-year-old daughter.

5. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 37—68, the Roman emperor, the last of the Julius-Claudian dynasty, the persecutor of Christians, nicknamed them «Antichrist.»

6. Flavius Aetius, commander of the Western Roman Empire, 390—454, according to historians-contemporaries «The Last (Great) Roman». The winner of Atilla in a two-day battle at the Cataluun Fields, in 451 (180,000 killed on both sides). Three years later, the Emperor Valentinian the Third, fearing the ambitions of his best diplomat and commander (he wants to extradite his daughter for the son of the ruler), kills Aetius right in the palace, at the audience. A year later, Rome, the former great capital, is captured and robbed by vandals (Vends). Twenty years later, the entire Western Roman Empire is fragmented into a number of barbarian kingdoms.

7. Roman legion (legionis – military collection) of the heyday of the Empire. Modern reconstruction. The army consists of 5—7 thousand, later about 4,5 thousand infantry and auxiliary units. Heavy cavalry (equities) – 300 people, divided into divisions (turmas) for 30 people. Archers – 200 people; They act from the flanks, releasing arrows along the line of raised shields. Great – from the lat. velox – «fast» – several hundred fighters – irregular infantry, usually recruited from local allied tribes, or the youngest legionaries. Armament is a round shield, with a diameter of 90 cm, a «Parma», a helmet, several darters of the «Gasta velitaris», a length (with an iron tip of 30 cm) 120 cm and a short (50 cm.) Roman sword – «gladius». The highest glamor of a daring warrior is a wolf’s hide over his helmet. The main defense against arrows, and other weapons – their own agility. In a free, open formation, evading enemy jets with jumps, they are ordered to throw their spears into the formation of the enemy and quickly retreat for the ranks of the heavily armed infantry.

The first line, in fact, built for the battle of the legion – hastati (Roman hastati, spearmen), soldiers aged 20—25 years, who so need combat experience. Arms – chain mail, or, in the era of the Empire – plate armor, rectangular shield scoot, sword of gladia, dagger pugio, two two-meter dart – piluma.

The second line is principles, (Latin princeps – the first). Warriors in the prime of life, 25—35, sometimes 40 years. Giving the young men the opportunity to gain experience, they let the gastata into the intervals between maniples and continue the battle to the victorious end.

On the third line there are triarius (triarius, lat. «Third») soldiers of 40—45 years old, veterans, the main reserve of the legion. Their main armament is long percussion javelins.

The army is governed by six tribunes (people’s representatives) and, as a rule, a representative of the tribal aristocracy – the legate.

The Legion in the Republic epoch consists of 30 manipuli («handful» or «hand»), two centurions (centum – one hundred) in each. Despite the name, the century has 60 to 120 people. Manipuls are combined into ten cohorts (Latin cohors, «fenced place») for 360 people. One of the cohorts (First) is considered praetorian, elite, has a doubled composition.

During the time of the Empire, the manipulation of the tactical unit disappears, leaving a cohort of 6 centurions.

Turned out of the marching legion follows the battlefield with a complex system – manipuli or centurions, staggered. So it’s easier to move around on rough terrain. Then squares composed of fighters are converted into three lines. «Brothers» toss the pilus, sometimes turning the enemy to flee this one with a dagger volley, close shields and draw swords…

8. Classic armor of the Roman legionary of the era of the heyday of the Empire «Segment of the Segment». The picture is redrawn from the illustration of the book of the Italian historian Peter Konolli, a professional artist, for the author’s article in the children’s magazine «Lefty».

9.10. Contours of details, fastenings and decorative elements, made on own reconstruction «Segmental Segments». The size of the cage in the figure of armor of 15 mm., Decorative elements and fasteners (including the belt «balteus» not shown here) is 4 mm. Shoulder plates are fastened with folding hinges with figured overlays. The parts are jointed by screws 3 mm, and, after fitting – with rivets.

1 – a strap for the front strap, 2 – a circle for the decorative element (8), 3,4 – straps for the fastening straps, 5 – the arrow for the apron (4), 6 – the apron badge (40), 7 – the lower badge of the apron (4), 8 – plates that cover the belt of the belt (12), 9 – fastenings on the plates 14 and 15, at an angle (6), 10 – elements of the joints of the shoulder and waist parts of the armor: wire hooks on top of them, 11 – fasteners on the plates 16 and 17, and below, except for the lower two rows (16), 12 – skipping, illustrator error, 13 – looping (16), 14 – front loop for the hook of the waist part of the armor (2), back hook loop (4).

Inca, Maya, Aztecs

The names of these peoples, the locations of their states are often confused. Historians, despite their neighborhood, believe that they developed completely independently.

The Incas. The state is Tawantisuyu. The west coast of South America, starting from the northern territories of modern Chile up. One thousand two hundred years BC. – the first ruler of Manko Kapaka, the latter, who led the revolt against the Spaniards – Tupac Omar (1570—1572). The Inca banner was like a rainbow. There is no monetary system, the benefits are distributed according to the established order.

Aztecs (the name of the mezika, hence the current «Mexico»). They came to the south of Mexico from the North of the continent, in the thirteenth century. The Aztecs (North American Indians are not at all savages like the colonialists-Europeans) built Tenochtitlan, the future Mexico City on a kite-ridden island, became rulers of local tribes. But in 1519 the Aztecs saw the Spaniards, and six years later their empire ceased to exist. Presumably, by this time the Indians were 95% chopped smallpox and chickenpox imported by Columbus in 1492, and spread to both continents. A huge, equal in culture to Egypt, an unknown, literally Martian world, moved to the region of legends.

For a warrior and a priest it is quite permissible to consider writing, at leisure, sublime verse. Listen to three excerpts of the author’s hymns of the ethno-linguistic group Nahua – to which our Aztecs also belong:

(author Ayokuan Kuezpaltsin)

(«The Song of the Old Men», the author of the warrior Aishakatl)

(Temilocin from Tlatelolco)

Mayan. The territory is slightly to the south of future Aztec possessions. The beginning of civilization – a thousand years BC. e. By the ninth century, the Maya society is in decline, the cause of which, as follows from the conclusions of geologists, is the long-term drought caused by the change in ocean currents. Remained truncated pyramid temples, a complex irrigation system and a perfect calendar.

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1. The city of Incas, Machu Picchu, the territory of modern Peru, the height of the location is 2.5 km. Typical polygonal masonry – stones of different shapes are precisely adjusted to each other, like puzzles or mosaic. The Incas also built pyramids, but, these temples never reached the splendor of similar Mayan buildings.

2. One of the many Mayan pyramids, in present-day Mexico. Apparently, initially they were not meant for committing bloody rituals. However, the Aztecs who came to these lands used them (as claimed by the Spaniards) for the mass executions of prisoners of war, the broadcast of horror throughout the range of habitats.

3. For comparison – the classical Egyptian pyramid of Cheops (Khufu). The name «pyramid» – from the Greek word combination «fire inside». What is this «fire», and why he was needed inside this cult, the building, we do not know. In ancient times, the Egyptian pyramids were surrounded by walls, and located, apparently, in the middle of an artificial lake.

4. Angkor (Angko-Khmer, «City of Capitals»), the territory of present-day Cambodia. It was built in the beginning of the 9th c. AD, existed as a settlement until the 15th century. The largest city in the world in the Middle Ages (and now, in size, comparable only to American Los Angeles), covers an area of 24 by 8 km. 200 sq. M. km., or even, according to some modern studies, 3000 square meters. km.

Each new governor justifies the new center of the capital, marking it with a huge five-tower temple, symbolizing the sacred Medu mountain Meru, the abode of Hindu gods, Eden, until finally the construction depletes all the tufa and sandstone in the country. In 1431, the Khmer State lost the war to neighboring Siam. Almost a million inhabitants of Angkor scatter in the jungle or, in a short time, die at the hands of enemy soldiers.

Angkor Wat – the palace and temple complex of the capital – now, despite all the efforts of archaeologists and reenactors, is sheltered by vegetation, and almost uninhabited.

5. One of the centers of the capital, reconstruction on a reduced scale. A real Angkor Wat (a paradise model for the elite, a palace and temple complex dedicated to the god Vishnu) surround the garden of a square layout, 2 by 2 km, and, along its perimeter, a system of wide (190 meters) canals.