REVISITING

The Classical Period,

600 B.C.E.-600 C.E.: Uniting Large Regions

CONTACTS AND THEIR LIMITS

I n contrast to the early river valley civilizations, which had no regular interregional exchange system (save

possibly in the Indian Ocean), reasonably systematic contacts developed during the classical period linking

China, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Some goods were shipped along sea routes in the

Indian Ocean, reaching as far as Egypt via the Red Sea. Important overland routes-the routes historians have

labeled collectively as the Silk Road-brought goods from western China through central Asia to the Middle

East, where they could also be trans-shipped to the Mediterranean. Important systems connected south

Indian merchants and some Hindu and Buddhist missionaries to various parts of southeast Asia. Ethiopians

in northeastern Africa traded actively with both the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

A few decades ago, archeologists, excavating the ruins of Roman Pompeii, found an ivory carving of a

woman made at Taxila in what is now northwestern Pakistan. This find confirmed the importance of trade

links between Rome and south Asia. Taxila had been part of the Hellenistic orbit established by Alexander

The enormous crater of Mount Vesuvius in Italy that erupted in 70 s.c.E., burying the town of Pompeii. Pompeii's

ruins, later excavated, would be part of the Roman heritage to the modern world.

PART

II

CHAPTER 6 The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 c.E. 145

the Great, and exchanges with the Mediterranean continued thereafter. Taxila was also a major

center along the Silk Road, serving as a link not only to the Mediterranean but also to east and

southeast Asia. New levels of long-distance commerce gave many elites an active taste for goods,

like silk, produced in distant places.

Improvements in technology, particularly for the fuller use of draft animals, began to con­

tribute to transportation, along with the important road systems constructed by leaders in Per­

sia, China, and the Mediterranean. After about 200 s.c.E., for example, the Chinese improved the

harnesses used for horses, developing straps that would not choke the horse. These horse col­

lars facilitated trade within China, but also on the routes to central Asia; ultimately, but only

centuries later, knowledge of the horse collar would also reach Europe. More widely important

was the growing use of saddles, with major developments from about 500 s.CE. onward. The first

saddle knob seems to have been introduced in China around 200. Bareback riding continued, but

increasingly saddles provided both greater comfort and maneuverability, in turn increasing the

Three Hindu goddesses appear in an intricate carving on a temple in India. Hindu art remains an

active element in Indian culture.

146 PART II The Classical Period, 600 B.C.E.-600 c.E.: Uniting Large Regions

utility of horses for travel and military purposes alike. Not only horses, but camels and donkeys

played crucial roles in overland exchange.

Contacts had some wider effects, beyond trade itself. Knowledge of South Asian crops like

cotton and rice spread to the Middle East, altering agricultural patterns there. We have seen that

diseases also spread, particularly from South Asia, affecting population patterns in the Mediter­

ranean and China as part of classical decline.

Besides the trade routes, two major episodes occurred that involved direct contact between

different civilizations. Alexander the Great's conquests brought Greek culture into interaction with

those of Persia and India, as well as with Egypt. We have seen that Indian artists imitated Greek

styles in their own work. Greeks and Indians both gained new mathematical knowledge (though

it is intriguing that the Greeks did not adopt Indian numbering which, later transmitted to Europe

by the Arabs, proved much superior to Greek and Roman numbering systems). Indian missionaries

to the Middle East, although failing to establish Buddhism, may have influenced ethical thought

in the later Roman empire and, through this, Christianity.

Interest in Asian goods also motivated Rome, although with less wide-ranging results. Once

they controlled Egypt, the Romans established regular Indian Ocean expeditions from the Red

Sea. Small groups of Roman merchants, located in India in particular, demonstrated a desire for

more direct access to Indian spices, particularly pepper, and Chinese silks also helped motivate

frequent wars with empires in Persia, although the Romans often fared badly and were unable

to break through to the sources of the goods they valued. China, for its part, established regular

diplomatic relations with empires in Persia, largely to further direct trade. None of these interest­

ing interactions, however, seems to have had significant results in terms of institutional or cultural

exchange.

The second major contact, toward the end of the classical period, involved China's fascination

with Indian Buddhism. Chinese knowledge of Buddhism initially spread as a result of Chinese

merchant ventures into India; later, religious students were sent directly. This was the only major

case of successful outside influence on Chinese culture until very recent times.

These developments were exceedingly important. They also had serious limits. Interregional

trade was certainly vital to some of the trading hubs in central Asia, such as Samarkand, but

it had relatively little economic importance to societies like China. It was nothing compared

to the growth of production for China's internal trade. There is no uncontested evidence that

anyone traveled all the way from Rome to China, and Roman knowledge of China (as well as

Chinese knowledge of Rome) was extremely hazy. There was trade, but no interaction between

Chinese and Roman culture or technology. The two cases of direct exchange between civiliza­

tions described above are fascinating but they also stand out as unusual. And the lasting effects

of the Hellenistic experience in northwestern India are questionable. Even in art, after about two

centuries, Mediterranean influence seems to have disappeared, and stylistic differences once

again became apparent.

So, while contacts advanced significantly in this period, the primary framework for the major

societies remained internal. The classical civilizations developed largely separately. The most

important kinds of contacts occurred within the civilizations, not among them: the careful, some­

times tense mixing of the northern Chinese with the people in the newer territories in the south;

the partial extension of Greek culture to the western Mediterranean and portions of the Middle

East and north Africa; the spread of Hinduism and the caste system southward on the Indian

subcontinent. These contacts were vital to the formation of larger civilizational areas, which was

the fundamental feature of the classical period. Clearly, far more energy went into this process

than into interregional linkages at this stage in world history.

CHAPTER 6 The Classical Period: Directions, Diversities, and Declines by 500 C.E. 147

CRITICAL THEMES

The classical period added important dimensions to a number of central themes in world history.

A number of social systems gained greater organization and also cultural support, beginning with

the Indian caste system but extending also to Mediterranean slavery and the Confucian ideas about

social order in China. State building won new attention, particularly in the construction of empires,

though here too regional differences require careful comparison. More intense economic activity,

including pressures applied by political leaders, contributed to environmental changes, as deforesta­

tion expanded and certain regions were over-farmed. Ultimately, probably the most important single

thematic category in the period involved the elaboration of wider cultural systems-the new religions

and philosophies and their links to artistic production. The systems were important at the time and

proved to have tremendous durability, in many cases outlasting the classical societies themselves.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. What were the main differences between the classical period and the previous period of early

civilizations? What were some of the causes of change?

2. What kinds of sources help us understand gender relationships during the classical period? What

kinds of additional evidence would be desirable?

3. What were the main causes of the success of Confucianism as a cultural system in classical China?

4. What were the primary limitations on contacts among the main civilization areas in the classical

period?

5. What were the main similarities and differences in patterns of decline, in the main civilizations of

the classical period?

148 PART II The Classical Period, 600 B.C.E.-600 c.E.: Uniting Large Regions