1. Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, and Persians, ca. 1200-330 B.C.
   Military and administrative innovations produced three great multi-ethnic empires, which promoted the idea of universal kingship.
   1. Assyrians and Neo-Babylonians
      While Phoenician traders exported the civilization of western Asia to the western Mediterranean, the warlike Assyrians built an empire that fell to the Neo-Babylonians. The Assyrians' rule was harsh and contributed to the downfall of their empire.
   2. Building the Persian Empire
      Militarily innovative, politically astute, and administratively skilled, Cyrus the Great's Persian Empire flourished. Persian rule was relatively tolerant and less coercive than that of the Assyrians or Neo-Babylonians.
   3. The King of Kings
      Ruling an empire of many disparate peoples, the Persians sought stability by exalting the Persian king and building monuments to royal authority.
   4. Zoroastrianism
      The ethical dualism of Zoroastrian religion emphasized humanity's ongoing choice between good and evil. Later Persian emperors used Zoroastrian beliefs to legitimate their rule.
2. Israel, ca. 1500-400 B.C.
   The monotheistic culture of the ancient Hebrews distinguished the relatively powerless Israelites from their mighty neighbors.
   1. The Hebrew Bible
      The most important book in Western civilization united the history and faith of the Hebrew people.
   2. The Emergence of Monotheism, ca. 1500-600 B.C.
      Arising amidst a host of naturebased, polytheistic religions, the Israelites developed monotheism as they built, and lost, political kingdoms.
   3. Exile and Return, 598-ca. 400 B.C.
      The Babylonian Captivity and its hardships cemented an enduring cultural awareness among the farflung Jewish communities that flourished long after the original deportations.
   4. The People of the Covenant
      Israelite culture valued limited government, the rule of God's law, and rough equality among men, with a few celebrated women as notable exceptions to the patriarchal norm.
3. Early Greece, to ca. 725 B.C.
   The culture and mythology of ancient Greece had its foundation in the civilizations of the Minoans and Mycenaeans.
   1. The Minoans and Early Greece, 3000-1375 B.C.
      From Crete, the monumental, literate civilization of the Minoans traded and settled widely.
   2. The Mycenaeans, to ca. 1200 B.C.
      Conquerors of Crete, the Greekspeaking Mycenaeans spread their competitive, creative society throughout the Aegean.
   3. Between Mycenae and the CityStates, ca. 1100-725 B.C.
      Greek society became poor and illiterate in the wake of the Mycenaeans' destruction.
   4. Homer and History
      Set during the era of the Trojan Wars, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey glorified the heroic ideals of Greek culture. The city of Troy actually existed and was destroyed one or two centuries before 1000 B.C. Thus, there may be a kernel of truth to Homer's epics.
   5. World of the Heroes
      In reality, Homeric Greece owed much to the ordinary people or demos whose loyalty to family supported the heroics of aristocratic warleaders or basileis.