Susan Wise Bauer - The History of the Ancient World

Part One
THE EDGE OF HISTORY

Part Two
FIRSTS

Part Three
STRUGGLE

Part Four
EMPIRES

Part Five
IDENTITY

4.1 Scorpion King Macehead

4.2 Narmer Palette

7.1 Cuneiform Tablet

7.2 Alphabet Chart

11.1 Bent Pyramid

12.1 Stele of Vultures

14.1 Mohenjo-Daro Man

15.1 Sphinx

15.2 Khafres Descendents

16.1 Gudea

19.1 Senusret III

24.1 Bull-dancer

28.1 Kings of Egypt

34.1 Statue of Rameses II

34.2 Mummy of Rameses II

36.1 Shang Bronze

39.1 Relief at Medinat Habu

45.1 Philistine Coffin

47.1 Black Obelisk

54.1 Midas Monument

58.1 Ishtar Gate

59.1 Cyruss Family Tree

63.1 First World Map

64.1 Pontoon Bridge

68.1 Philip of Macedonia

70.1 Alexander the Great

72.1 First Emperors Army

77.1 Sulla

78.1 Pompey

78.2 Julius Caesar

79.1 Octavian

81.1 Nero

82.1 Hadrians Wall

84.1 Commodus

85.1 Shifts of Power in the Roman Empire

85.2 Constantine

F OR SEVERAL YEARS NOW , Ive had trouble finding a good answer to the question, What are you working on these days? When I say, Im working on a history of the world, people inevitably laugh.

I really am writing a history of the world. But I wouldnt have ventured into a project like this unless my editor at Norton, Starling Lawrence, had suggested it first. His advice, encouragement, and editorial judgment have helped shape this first volume; a generous share of the credit (and a heaping helping of any punishment headed my way for the crime of hubris) should go to him. Thanks also to Star and Jenny for their hospitality, which is almost Southern in its kindness.

My able agent, Richard Henshaw, helps me manage my professional affairs with skill and efficiency. I continue to be grateful for his help and friendship.

Any general history like this one relies on the painstaking work of specialists. I am particularly indebted to Samuel Noah Kramer, for all things Sumerian; Gwendolyn Leick, for Mesopotamia and Babylon; Peter Clayton, for the chronology of the pharaohs; Daniel Luckenbill, for the Assyrian kings; Romila Thapar, for perspectives on India; Grant Frame, for the Babylonian kings; Robin Waterfield, for the translations from the Greek; and Burton Watson, for the translations from the Chinese. I made heavy use of the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, a wonderful resource made available by the Oriental Institute of Oxford University.

The librarians and interlibrary loan staff at my home library, the Swem Library of the College of William & Mary, were both helpful and tolerant. Many thanks also to Diane Bergman at the Sackler Library, Oxford University, for her assistance.

I feel very fortunate that the talented Sarah Park was able to work with me to create my maps, and Im looking forward to moving on into the medieval landscape with her.

At Peace Hill, Im grateful to Peter Buffington, for able assistance with permissions, library runs, e-mail, and a myriad of details (and also for saying how well I was getting along every time I told him I had advanced another fifteen years or so); Sara Buffington, for all the miles-to-inches and kilometers-to-millimeters calculations, for help with catalog copy, and for her friendship; Charlie Park, for website work, publicity, technical advice, and enthusiasm; Elizabeth Weber, for cheerful help with everything from references to diapers; and Nancy Blount, who took on the job of my assistant right at the most dreadful point in the process, when I had 364 books checked out of the university library and hadnt answered my mail for eight months. She set about bringing order out of chaos with both good humor and efficiency.

Thanks to the other historians, professional and amateur, who have encouraged me in this project: John Wilson of Books & Culture ; Maureen Fitzgerald of the College of William and Mary, for support that went far, far beyond the call of duty; and my father (and business partner), James L. Wise Jr., M.D., who also built me an office in our old chicken shed and turned it into a thing of beauty.

Robert Eric Frykenberg, Rollin Phipps, Michael Stewart, and Martha Dart read early drafts; thanks to them for their suggestions. Elizabeth Piersons expert copyediting caught more inconsistencies than I thought I was capable of.

Thanks to Lauren Winner for the sympathetic encouragement, and to Greg and Stephanie Smith for not giving up on the chance to do lunch, once a year or so. Susan Cunningham continues to remind me what Im supposed to be doing.

My brother Bob Wise provided photographic expertise and kept in touch. (Bob and Heather: now that the first volume is out, I promise to start answering the phone AND my e-mail.) Jessie Wise is both my respected professional colleague and an extraordinary mother/grandmother; she taught Emily to read while I was wading through Sumerian inscriptions, and kept bringing me food from the garden even though I never weed anything. My son Christopher, the first student to use this for a high-school history text, gave me valuable feedback; Ben, Daniel, and Emily reminded me that life is just great! even when theres proofreading to be done. My deepest gratitude goes to my husband, Peter, who makes it possible for me to write and still have a life. Sumus exules, vivendi quam auditores.

S OMETIME AROUND 1770 BC, Zimri-Lim, king of the walled city of Mari on the banks of the Euphrates, got exasperated with his youngest daughter.

A decade earlier, Zimri-Lim had married his older daughter Shimatum to the king of another walled and sovereign city called Ilansura. It was a good match, celebrated with enormous feasts and heaps of presents (mostly from the brides family to the groom). Zimri-Lims grandchildren would eventually be in line for the throne of Ilansura, and in the meantime the king of Ilansura would become an ally, rather than another competitor among the crowd of independent cities fighting for territory along the limited fertile stretches of the Euphrates.