0:00:08 > 0:00:13Ever since modern people began to spread from Africa,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17our biggest battles had been with the forces of nature.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26But, as we created the first civilisations,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29we found we faced a sharper threat...
0:00:29 > 0:00:30CHANTING
0:00:30 > 0:00:32...human nature.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34SHOUTING
0:00:34 > 0:00:353,000 years ago,
0:00:35 > 0:00:39the world was being churned and pulled apart
0:00:39 > 0:00:41in the first great age of empire.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44This was a time of vicious civil wars,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48all the way from China, through India, to the Mediterranean.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54And you'd think that all this violence
0:00:54 > 0:00:56would push the human story back.
0:00:59 > 0:01:05The awkward truth is that all the violence in fact drove the human story forward.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15This is a period of extraordinary new thinking
0:01:15 > 0:01:18on everything from democracy to God,
0:01:18 > 0:01:21from some of the greatest minds we've ever come across.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32War is always terrible.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36But here, in a way, is the case for war.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39SHOUTING
0:02:03 > 0:02:05The first empires spread
0:02:05 > 0:02:09a pall of smoke and a stench of death.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11From their grand palaces, kings and emperors
0:02:11 > 0:02:16assumed that to be great was to conquer, burn and enslave.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20And yet, from this blood-soaked soil,
0:02:20 > 0:02:27new ideas about how to rule and how to live would flower.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38The palace of Nineveh in what is now Iraq.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43So massive, it was known as the palace without rival,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47a stony monument to the power and determination
0:02:47 > 0:02:50of one of the earliest great empire builders -
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Underneath the eyeliner, a tiger of a man.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Sennacherib was the original, the prototype,
0:03:04 > 0:03:06for the empire-building maniac.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08With an army better than anyone else's,
0:03:08 > 0:03:14he had around 200,000 battle-hardened regular troops.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17And he knew how to use them.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24In 701 BC, the Assyrians had the world's most potent empire.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29And then, ridiculously, the King of Judah dared to rebel.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33Retribution came like a thunderbolt.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36The city of Lachish was about to find itself
0:03:36 > 0:03:41on the wrong end of the most terrifying military machine of the age.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46The first thing Sennacherib did
0:03:46 > 0:03:50was to get his army to build a massive siege ramp
0:03:50 > 0:03:52up against the city walls.
0:03:55 > 0:03:5925,000 tonnes of earth and stone.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02A big lump, and it's still there.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Lachish, on the other hand...isn't.
0:04:12 > 0:04:18Today, we talk about "total war" and "shock and awe".
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Well, invented by the Assyrians.
0:04:24 > 0:04:31The Bible calls them "a nation grim of face, like a vulture in flight...
0:04:31 > 0:04:33"ruthless towards the old...
0:04:34 > 0:04:36"...pitiless towards the young."
0:04:38 > 0:04:43What happened if you fought back?
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Well, captives were flayed alive.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Their leaders had their heads displayed on stakes,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54and anyone who survived was deported and enslaved.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58SCREAMING
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Anything left behind was torched.
0:05:24 > 0:05:291,500 men, women and children died at Lachish.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32Archaeologists have found their remains in a mass grave.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40It's been estimated that the Assyrians deported
0:05:40 > 0:05:42more than four million people
0:05:42 > 0:05:45during three centuries of dominance -
0:05:45 > 0:05:49slave labour to build monuments to the glory of their captors.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52You may ask how we know about all of this.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Well, the truth is that Assyrian leaders boasted about it
0:05:56 > 0:06:00on clay tablets, and had huge friezes,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03in effect propaganda pictures,
0:06:03 > 0:06:04made of their victories.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09The palace walls of Nineveh displayed
0:06:09 > 0:06:11this gruesome catalogue of brutality.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15The flayings.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19The impalings.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22The deportations.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29What kind of civilisation chooses this as its wallpaper?
0:06:33 > 0:06:37But the ruthless warmongers have left little trace on the world,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40and the biggest legacy of this time
0:06:40 > 0:06:44was one the Assyrians were barely aware of.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51Sennacherib had conquered most of the world he knew about.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54But he could never have dreamed
0:06:54 > 0:06:58that the great gift of the Assyrian age to humanity
0:06:58 > 0:07:03had nothing to do with his terror tactics or his glittering palaces.
0:07:03 > 0:07:09It was the scratchings of a group of sailors and tradesmen
0:07:09 > 0:07:14that he had terrorised and forced out over the seas.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20They were a seafaring people.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22The Greeks called them Phoenicians,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25living on the coast of today's Lebanon and Syria.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30Being merchants, they tried to buy off the Assyrian invaders.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36They sailed the length of the Mediterranean
0:07:36 > 0:07:41to trade silver and other gifts which they then offered as tribute.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43And as they sailed, these traders carried
0:07:43 > 0:07:46something remarkable with them.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50The Phoenicians' great export was something
0:07:50 > 0:07:53that surrounds us all today -
0:07:53 > 0:07:55the alphabet.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Before then, writing was basically
0:07:58 > 0:08:01lots of simplified little pictures of things.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04So you might have a picture of a fish.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07But it didn't tell you how to say "fish".
0:08:07 > 0:08:09What the Phoenicians did was,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12they started to use little symbols for sounds.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14And then you put the sounds together
0:08:14 > 0:08:17and you can say them back and you've got words.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21It's an incredibly useful, revolutionary breakthrough.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25This is part of the Phoenician alphabet.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28Aleph,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30beth,
0:08:30 > 0:08:31gimel...
0:08:33 > 0:08:34daleth...
0:08:34 > 0:08:37It's beginning to look rather familiar, isn't it?
0:08:37 > 0:08:43Just imagine how useful this is going to be to a trading people,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46bouncing around the coast of the Mediterranean,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50doing deals with peoples with many different languages
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and having to note those deals down.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57The Phoenicians simply found the alphabet a very useful tool.
0:08:58 > 0:09:02And so, since then, have many of the rest of us.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06The alphabet spread quickly.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09The Greeks adapted it with vowel sounds.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13And then, later on, the Romans - it forms the basis of Latin.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17The Hebrews used a version for their Bible.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19In fact, it's thought that
0:09:19 > 0:09:22all today's Western alphabets spread from here.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29Other cultures left behind palaces or pyramids.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34The Phoenicians left something far more impressive.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Within 100 years of Sennacherib's rampage through Judah,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44the Assyrians were a spent force...
0:09:44 > 0:09:48making way for the next new empire, that of the Persians.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53And their most famous ruler wasn't exactly a wallflower either.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58"I am Cyrus. Great king, mighty king.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00"King of the globe.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02"King of the four quarters of the Earth."
0:10:02 > 0:10:06We have heard this kind of thing before in world history.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09We'll hear a lot of it again.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14But what does make Cyrus the Great different and possibly even great
0:10:14 > 0:10:17is that unlike any previous ruler,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20he listened to the people he conquered,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24he was open to cultural and religious influences.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29And if that makes him sound like an early liberal, think again,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32because before the listening came the old business
0:10:32 > 0:10:35of the conquering and the slaughtering.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43In 547 BC, the mighty Cyrus turned his attention
0:10:43 > 0:10:46to one of the wealthiest little kingdoms in the world.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50These are the ruins of Sardis,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54the capital of Lydia, in what is now Turkey.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59The Persians were hitting back against a troublesome rival
0:10:59 > 0:11:02but they were also following the money
0:11:02 > 0:11:05because the Lydians were rich.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08And when the invaders came knocking,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11they knew exactly who they were looking for...
0:11:15 > 0:11:17...Croesus, the king of Lydia.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19YELLING
0:11:19 > 0:11:22He may have been the richest man in the world
0:11:22 > 0:11:25but now, as he tried to hide with his son,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28his great wealth was putting his life in danger.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30DOORS THUDDING
0:11:32 > 0:11:35And that great wealth came from right here.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39This doesn't look much like a significant site
0:11:39 > 0:11:41in the history of the world economy, but it is.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46This is the river bed of the Pactolus, which in ancient times
0:11:46 > 0:11:50was a stream running with very rich gold and silver deposits,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53which the Lydians learned to refine
0:11:53 > 0:11:56and turn into reliable, valuable coins
0:11:56 > 0:12:01which circulated all around this part of Asia.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06There was gold in the hills up there and this is why, even today,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09when we're talking about somebody who's loaded,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11we say, "He's rich as Croesus."
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Croesus's gold coins were stamped with symbols of power and strength -
0:12:19 > 0:12:21the lion and the bull.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Now, other cultures had had currencies before.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30They'd had bronze, or silver, or even rare seashells.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32But what the Lydians did for the first time
0:12:32 > 0:12:38was produce gold coins of a reliable weight and purity.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Even today when people are frightened
0:12:41 > 0:12:43about the banks and governments,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45they go to gold.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Well, it started here.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51CLATTERING AND THUDDING
0:12:55 > 0:12:57SCREAMS
0:13:03 > 0:13:08The fate of King Croesus now lay at the mercy of the Persian leader -
0:13:08 > 0:13:09Cyrus.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Lessons from history -
0:13:17 > 0:13:20if a Persian king invites you to a barbecue,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22it's probably wise to say no.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Solon! Solon!
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Croesus called on the god Apollo to save him.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47COUGHS
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Aargh! Apollon...!
0:13:52 > 0:13:55THUNDERCLAP
0:13:57 > 0:14:00And he sent down a shower of rain to douse the flames.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03LAUGHS
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Well, maybe, maybe not.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14Some of what we know about Cyrus and Croesus, we think we know
0:14:14 > 0:14:18because of the writings of the great Greek historian Herodotus.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20LAUGHS
0:14:20 > 0:14:25The trouble is that he is not an entirely reliable witness.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Apart from being known as "the father of history",
0:14:28 > 0:14:32Herodotus is also sometimes called "the father of lies".
0:14:32 > 0:14:37He certainly had that fatal journalistic weakness
0:14:37 > 0:14:38for a great story.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43According to Herodotus,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47the Persian king asked his prisoner why he'd fought him.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Croesus, typically, blamed the gods.
0:14:51 > 0:14:56"Mmm," thought Cyrus, "bad advice?"
0:14:57 > 0:15:00"Well," said Croesus,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03"in peace, sons bury their fathers.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07"But in wartime, fathers bury their sons."
0:15:07 > 0:15:11SPEAKS IN ANCIENT GREEK
0:15:11 > 0:15:12"Mm, fair point,"
0:15:12 > 0:15:14thought Cyrus. "Rather well put."
0:15:14 > 0:15:17And so he let Croesus off the hook
0:15:17 > 0:15:21and appointed him as his adviser instead.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24CHUCKLING
0:15:24 > 0:15:29But it wasn't just wise advice and mottos that Cyrus got from Croesus.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34The Persians also picked up the Lydians' great invention -
0:15:34 > 0:15:37reliable, effective currency.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41Coins begin to spread around a large area at this time
0:15:41 > 0:15:44because of the Persian Empire.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Currency becomes current because of war.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Enriched with the gold from Croesus,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Cyrus carried on his rampage across the Middle East.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05And eight years later, he conquered the great city of Babylon.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11There, the Hebrews of Jerusalem had been exiled and enslaved.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15"Weeping by the waters of Babylon," says the Bible,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19and Cyrus set them free, sending them home.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31Cyrus even paid for the rebuilding of their temple in Jerusalem.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33The Wailing Wall is part of it,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38and remains the most sacred Jewish site to this day.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Through these acts of religious tolerance,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45the Persian king became the only Gentile ever
0:16:45 > 0:16:49to be honoured with the title messiah.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Like the Assyrians, like every great ruler before him,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58Cyrus had hacked and slaughtered his way to power.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03This period of history is a long catalogue of butchery and burning.
0:17:03 > 0:17:11But, out of it comes the alphabet, the first standardised currency
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and the birth of one of the world's great religions.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Free and back in Jerusalem, the Jewish faith really developed.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24And one big idea set them apart
0:17:24 > 0:17:27from most other religious groups at the time.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30They believed in one god.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37The great discovery, or invention, of the Jews was monotheism -
0:17:37 > 0:17:39the belief in one god only.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43And in a world of so many billions of Christians and Muslims,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45it might seem an obvious idea,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48but in the ancient world, it was truly odd.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Then, wherever you looked around the world,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53there were huge numbers of gods -
0:17:53 > 0:17:57gods on mountains, gods in rivers and forests, father gods,
0:17:57 > 0:17:58mother gods, child gods.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03So how was it that this people
0:18:03 > 0:18:08came up with something so radical and so different?
0:18:11 > 0:18:17There had been one-god cults and faiths before in world history,
0:18:17 > 0:18:24but the Jewish experience of exile would produce a much stronger story.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28And that's partly because they could write it all down
0:18:28 > 0:18:35using one of those wonderful, flexible, new-fangled alphabets.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39In the Book of Isaiah, God says,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42"...there is no other god but me.
0:18:43 > 0:18:48"No god was formed before me, nor will be after me."
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Just one god.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56The Hebrews had never said it as loudly and clearly before.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02Monotheism is one of the most powerful ideas in world history.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07And without war and exile, it might never have happened.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10BELL RESOUNDS
0:19:13 > 0:19:16CHANTING
0:19:16 > 0:19:20In India, a similar time of warfare and turmoil
0:19:20 > 0:19:23was also making people question
0:19:23 > 0:19:26and explore the meaning of life.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30And here, the search for an answer was to lead
0:19:30 > 0:19:34to a creed of compassion, tolerance and non-violence.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40HORNS BEEPING
0:19:46 > 0:19:49In the 5th century BC,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53India was going through a period of massive social change.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57The new technology was iron, which made ploughing much more effective.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Agriculture was spreading.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02The ancient forests were being torn down.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Towns and even cities were appearing.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08And everywhere there were vicious little wars.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13So it's not surprising that at a time of such social shaking,
0:20:13 > 0:20:18people are asking themselves, "Isn't there something more?"
0:20:18 > 0:20:20There is a hunger for new ideas.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31Life in India was shaped by the caste system -
0:20:31 > 0:20:33a fixed hierarchy of classes.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37At the top were rulers like Siddhartha Gautama.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42His family were wealthy clan leaders in the foothills of the Himalayas.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46He lived a remarkably easy life for the time -
0:20:46 > 0:20:49cut off from the suffering and the turmoil outside.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53A loving wife, a newborn boy -
0:20:53 > 0:20:55what more could any man ask for?
0:20:58 > 0:21:02By his late twenties, Siddhartha was becoming frustrated.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07He became sickened by his easy life,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11reflecting that even his comparative wealth
0:21:11 > 0:21:15wouldn't stop him from suffering, growing old and sick.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20And so he began to ask the fundamental questions.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Life, what is it for? What is it about?
0:21:25 > 0:21:27INSECTS CHIRRUP
0:21:31 > 0:21:35After much anguish, Siddhartha abandoned his family
0:21:35 > 0:21:37and his life of privilege
0:21:37 > 0:21:41and went in search of an answer to the questions that haunted him.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48EERIE MUSIC AND LAUGHTER
0:21:53 > 0:21:56In the streets outside, he came face to face
0:21:56 > 0:22:00with poverty, pain and illness.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19For six years, he wandered through the forests of northern India.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22This was a time of wandering prophets,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and on his travels he came across holy men,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29but they didn't have the answers he was looking for.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He tried almost suicidal fasting.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35That didn't work either.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Eventually, he concluded that to discover wisdom,
0:22:39 > 0:22:41compassion and insight,
0:22:41 > 0:22:44he needed to meditate about the meaning of life.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50One day, he came upon a bodhi tree -
0:22:50 > 0:22:53it's a kind of big fig tree -
0:22:53 > 0:22:55and he settled himself down
0:22:55 > 0:23:00and vowed to remain more or less literally rooted here
0:23:00 > 0:23:04until his concentration and his focus
0:23:04 > 0:23:09allowed him to break open the great secret that he was searching for.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27Slowly, Siddhartha was able to let go of the world's distractions.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38THUNDERCLAP
0:23:41 > 0:23:43Hour by hour,
0:23:43 > 0:23:45day by day,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47his mind became clearer.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57GASPS
0:23:57 > 0:23:59EXHALES
0:23:59 > 0:24:00BREATHES DEEPLY
0:24:00 > 0:24:05At last, he reached a state of radiant inner peace -
0:24:05 > 0:24:07spiritual liberation...
0:24:11 > 0:24:12...enlightenment.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20BIRDSONG
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Tradition says that Siddhartha sat under his bodhi tree
0:24:26 > 0:24:28for 49 days and 49 nights,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30right here.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32And this tree is said to be a cutting
0:24:32 > 0:24:34of a cutting of the original tree.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38So a kind of grandson of Siddhartha's tree.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Siddhartha himself became known as The Buddha -
0:24:44 > 0:24:46"the awakened one".
0:24:48 > 0:24:53A temple was built next to the tree where he had sat and meditated.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58Pilgrims come here to Bodh Gaya from all over the world.
0:25:00 > 0:25:07It's the nearest thing that Buddhism has to a Jerusalem or Rome or Mecca.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11But it's small and quiet and very little developed.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14THEY CHANT
0:25:14 > 0:25:16For the rest of his life, the Buddha travelled and taught.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21"But how," you may ask, "can we know anything
0:25:21 > 0:25:26"about the life or the words of someone who lived so far back,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28"before there were books in India?"
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Well, the group chanting of stories and sayings -
0:25:31 > 0:25:35so that everybody remembers the same words together -
0:25:35 > 0:25:41is partly a way of trying to stop things being distorted or forgotten.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45This is the power of oral history.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51The Buddha was one of the first,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54great radical thinkers in world history.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00At a time of shaking social change and civil war,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03he said, "Turn inward."
0:26:03 > 0:26:06When all of what we call history
0:26:06 > 0:26:11is about technology and violence thrusting forward in one direction,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15he is saying, "No, no, no! Walk the other way."
0:26:16 > 0:26:18And his version of enlightenment
0:26:18 > 0:26:22contained no hierarchy, no aggression,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26it was open to everybody - from kings to paupers.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Compared to other creeds,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36this was a remarkably unpolitical reply
0:26:36 > 0:26:39to an unfair and painful world.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45But in a corner of Europe,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48at around the same time, politics became central,
0:26:48 > 0:26:53as another people asked, "How shall we live together?"
0:26:55 > 0:26:59In Greece, one of the original experiments in Western civilisation
0:26:59 > 0:27:01was about to begin.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09It was led, not by a king or a prophet,
0:27:09 > 0:27:15but by the ordinary, dusty citizens of the city state of Athens...
0:27:15 > 0:27:19who'd had enough of the tyrant of the day.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28And so they did something extraordinary and new.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30They threw him out.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35The world's first democratic revolution started here
0:27:35 > 0:27:37at the Acropolis in Athens.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42The people massed in this area and refused to leave
0:27:42 > 0:27:45until the tyrant was sent off into exile.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49And after he'd gone, remarkable reforms followed.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55All male citizens had complete freedom of speech in public
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and they could vote on almost everything.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02It didn't matter how rich or poor you were,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05your vote counted just the same.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08The Greeks had two words -
0:28:08 > 0:28:15"demos", people and "kratos" for power or rule.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Demos kratos, the rule of the people.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Democracy.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32Next door to the Acropolis is the actual site - the Pnyx -
0:28:32 > 0:28:35where this new democracy was put into practice.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39For anyone interested in politics,
0:28:39 > 0:28:44this is sacred ground, because it was right here
0:28:44 > 0:28:47that the 6,000 Athenian citizens would meet
0:28:47 > 0:28:51and listen to arguments and debate and then vote.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56On this meagre soil, something was grown
0:28:56 > 0:29:01which has been transplanted to every democracy in the world.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25And yet it's very important to remember
0:29:25 > 0:29:30that Greek democracy was not our version of democracy.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32It excluded all women
0:29:32 > 0:29:35and it excluded slaves,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39because Athens was a slave-owning society.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42For every free Athenian, it's been estimated
0:29:42 > 0:29:46there were at least two slaves working the soil,
0:29:46 > 0:29:50cutting the stone, cleaning, doing all the jobs
0:29:50 > 0:29:57which allowed free Athenian men to sit here and listen and choose.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05But, within 20 years, this fledgling experiment in democracy
0:30:05 > 0:30:07was about to face a life-or-death struggle
0:30:07 > 0:30:11with our old friends, the Persians.
0:30:15 > 0:30:17They had the biggest empire in the world
0:30:17 > 0:30:20and they were determined to conquer the Athenians.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23A massive invasion force was dispatched.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28The armies met face to face, a short distance from Athens,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32on the coast at a place called Marathon.
0:30:40 > 0:30:45490 BC, and the Battle of Marathon -
0:30:45 > 0:30:49the most important battle in the ancient world.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53On the one side, a free, citizen army
0:30:53 > 0:30:57fighting for the right to think and speak as they wished.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01On the other side, the army of a despot.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05On the outcome of the Battle of Marathon
0:31:05 > 0:31:07hung not only the fate of this part of the world,
0:31:07 > 0:31:12but also, in many ways, how we still think today.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23No Greek army had ever defeated the Persians in open combat.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26The very name struck fear into the heart of the Athenians.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35And now, as the Greeks confronted the invaders across the battlefield,
0:31:35 > 0:31:41they could see that they were hugely outnumbered by at least two to one.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44The Persian commander was convinced that,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46faced with such overwhelming force,
0:31:46 > 0:31:51the Greeks would do the obvious and simply surrender.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58This was not a professional army.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03These were craftsmen and farmers and tradesmen
0:32:03 > 0:32:07and writers, protecting one another.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10In the ranks of this citizen army
0:32:10 > 0:32:13was a young playwright called Aeschylus.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18Alongside him, his brother, Cynegeirus.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27The Athenian commander, Miltiades, had a bold strategy -
0:32:27 > 0:32:31he ordered his troops to do something almost ridiculous.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33YELLS ORDER
0:32:33 > 0:32:37TROOPS CHANT
0:32:44 > 0:32:46YELLS ORDER
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Drawn up opposite the Greek army,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56the Persians looked on with amazement.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00The Greeks were doing the one thing that made no sense at all.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02They were attacking.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07YELLS ORDER
0:33:07 > 0:33:09To the vastly superior Persian force,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12the Greek tactics must have seemed like suicide.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15But there was method in the madness.
0:33:15 > 0:33:20Now, the Athenians were of course hugely outnumbered,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23but Miltiades had a cunning plan.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29He had deliberately weakened the Greek front line.
0:33:29 > 0:33:32YELLING
0:33:34 > 0:33:38The Persians punched through them with deceptive ease.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Miltiades now had them outflanked.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47He ordered his two wings to act like pincers...
0:33:47 > 0:33:50gripping the Persian enemy tight...
0:33:52 > 0:33:54...and squeezing it slowly to death.
0:34:02 > 0:34:03That day at Marathon,
0:34:03 > 0:34:066,000 Persian soldiers were slaughtered.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14But just 200 Athenians died.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19The brother of Aeschylus was among them.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23YELLS
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Every Greek who died at the Battle of Marathon
0:34:36 > 0:34:39was remembered as a hero.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Uniquely, in the story of ancient Athens,
0:34:42 > 0:34:46their bodies were not brought back to the city.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49Instead, they were buried here
0:34:49 > 0:34:52on the battlefield where they'd died.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57And 2,500 years on,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59here they are still -
0:34:59 > 0:35:05under a simple, modest mound of earth and grass.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Can you imagine anything
0:35:09 > 0:35:13less like the pompous monuments raised for tyrants?
0:35:17 > 0:35:21But back on that extraordinary day, the danger was far from over.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25The surviving Persians returned to their ships
0:35:25 > 0:35:26and set sail for Athens.
0:35:26 > 0:35:32The exhausted Athenians now had to race back to defend their city
0:35:32 > 0:35:34before the Persians could get there.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44The Greek army's heroic 26-mile run
0:35:44 > 0:35:47back to defend their city
0:35:47 > 0:35:51is of course remembered today in the Olympic Games,
0:35:51 > 0:35:56the ultimate test of courage and stamina -
0:35:56 > 0:35:57the marathon.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05The Athenian soldiers got there just in time,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08and the Persian fleet turned tail and sailed home.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12The young soldier Aeschylus went on to become
0:36:12 > 0:36:14one of history's greatest playwrights.
0:36:18 > 0:36:19YELLS
0:36:29 > 0:36:34The Parthenon itself, the crowning achievement of Greek architecture,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37is a remarkable offering of thanks
0:36:37 > 0:36:40for the Athenian victory over the Persians.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47If the Persians had won at Marathon,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50the world today would feel different.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54Greek culture would be just a footnote.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56And however we governed ourselves,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59we certainly wouldn't call it democracy.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03But the victory gave the Athenians
0:37:03 > 0:37:06the most extraordinary outpouring
0:37:06 > 0:37:10of self-confidence and cultural brilliance.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25Yes, this is a story about war,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29but there was once a golden age.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32And it happened here.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43While the Greeks were developing the idea of democracy,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47a very different set of values was beginning to take shape in the East.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54This new thinking was also born in a time of turmoil and chaos.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02In 500 BC, much of the land we now call China
0:38:02 > 0:38:06was dominated by the Zhou dynasty -
0:38:06 > 0:38:09a line of rulers going back hundreds of years.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15But now, the country was at risk
0:38:15 > 0:38:18of fragmenting into small rival states.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22The threat of war dominated the times.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30Out of these wobbly, anxious years came one man with a clear vision
0:38:30 > 0:38:33of a safer, kinder, better-ordered world.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39The man was an official,
0:38:39 > 0:38:43a bureaucrat, who'd worked his way up.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45He famously liked his food
0:38:45 > 0:38:50and he was very proud of his ability to hold his drink.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53The Chinese know him as K'ung Fu-tzu.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56We call him Confucius.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04Confucius worked in the court of Lu in eastern China.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11He was one of the old school who yearned for the good society
0:39:11 > 0:39:15and the stability of the past. And he could see
0:39:15 > 0:39:20that standards of discipline, behaviour and respect were slipping.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23'Without feelings of respect,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27'what is there to distinguish men from beasts?'
0:39:29 > 0:39:33Confucius thought that the best way to rebuild the good society
0:39:33 > 0:39:37was to encourage the proper performance of rites.
0:39:37 > 0:39:42Now, that meant the proper way to mourn, to praise and to pray,
0:39:42 > 0:39:46the proper way to conduct celebrations and anniversaries,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50even the proper way to eat a meal and dress.
0:39:50 > 0:39:51This is no easy matter.
0:39:51 > 0:39:53In traditional Chinese society,
0:39:53 > 0:39:59a well-educated gentleman had to know around 3,000 different rules.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06And yet, for Confucius, this is an essential moral crusade.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Confucius began a campaign of reforms
0:40:11 > 0:40:16to improve standards in the court, and he had some success.
0:40:17 > 0:40:23But then he was to face a further challenge from his master himself.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34He started neglecting his duties after he was introduced
0:40:34 > 0:40:38to some particularly enticing new courtesans.
0:40:38 > 0:40:43Audiences were cancelled, work was left undone.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45Confucius believed that if you didn't set
0:40:45 > 0:40:47a good example at the top,
0:40:47 > 0:40:49there was little hope for anyone else.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58SPEAKS IN CHINESE
0:41:00 > 0:41:03Feeling bitterly let down,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Confucius packed up and left the court.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13He was having one of the most important mid-life crises
0:41:13 > 0:41:15in the history of ideas.
0:41:15 > 0:41:21In his mid-50s, he was completely sure that he was a failure.
0:41:21 > 0:41:24But he was walking out to change China.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36Like The Buddha in India, Confucius went on the road.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39He travelled through China, listening,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43teaching, gathering converts.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47He was convinced that individual actions on a small scale
0:41:47 > 0:41:51could shape the whole of society.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56And so he urged his followers to honour tradition,
0:41:56 > 0:42:01respect their families and follow ancient rules of good behaviour.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04'Respect yourself and others...'
0:42:04 > 0:42:06'And not to do it is to...'
0:42:06 > 0:42:08'Do not do unto others
0:42:08 > 0:42:11'what you would not like done to yourself.'
0:42:19 > 0:42:22Confucius died aged 72,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and his story might have ended in failure
0:42:26 > 0:42:30were it not for the fact that his followers wrote down
0:42:30 > 0:42:34his wise sayings and his teachings in a book called The Analects.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41After his death, his followers spread his ideas
0:42:41 > 0:42:45with remarkable success, and a cult developed,
0:42:45 > 0:42:49which was eventually embraced by the rulers of China themselves.
0:42:55 > 0:43:00The social philosophy of Confucius took root in Chinese society.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04Over time, it became deeply embedded in state institutions.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09Confucian teaching was drilled into
0:43:09 > 0:43:13generation after generation of Chinese civil servants.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17And the emperors, for hundreds of years, had a bureaucracy
0:43:17 > 0:43:22that was infinitely more efficient and effective and just
0:43:22 > 0:43:24than anything in the West.
0:43:27 > 0:43:302,400 years after his death,
0:43:30 > 0:43:35Confucian ideas are still enduring in today's China.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37WOMAN SPEAKS IN CHINESE
0:43:37 > 0:43:39CLASS RESPONDS IN CHINESE
0:43:42 > 0:43:46For those looking for something more than Communist ideology
0:43:46 > 0:43:47or mere materialism,
0:43:47 > 0:43:52his teachings on morality and good conduct are still seen
0:43:52 > 0:43:55as an important lesson for the next generation.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58THEY RECITE IN CHINESE
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Confucius' ideas were a response to disorder,
0:44:04 > 0:44:09and they made Chinese civilisation more distinctive, more itself,
0:44:09 > 0:44:11even unique.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16But in the Mediterranean, just the opposite would happen.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22HORSE WHINNIES
0:44:22 > 0:44:27Conflict was about to crash rival civilisations together.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35In 356 BC, a legend was born.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37He'd be a new kind of empire builder.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46According to legend, when he was a boy, a wild, unbroken horse
0:44:46 > 0:44:49was brought to his father's court in Macedonia.
0:44:51 > 0:44:56The boy begged his father to let him try to tame the beast.
0:44:57 > 0:45:02He had noticed that the horse was afraid of its own shadow.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10WHINNIES AND SNORTS
0:45:12 > 0:45:15The horse was called Bucephalus.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19And the boy would, of course, grow up to be...
0:45:20 > 0:45:22..Alexander the Great.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Alexander was brought up on stories
0:45:26 > 0:45:30of Homer's heroes from the Trojan wars.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33He was a true child of the Greek golden age.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38His father hired the great philosopher Aristotle
0:45:38 > 0:45:41and asked him to create a little school,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44here in a remote part of Macedonia,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46where he spent three years
0:45:46 > 0:45:49intensively teaching the young Alexander
0:45:49 > 0:45:51everything from history and geography
0:45:51 > 0:45:54to mathematics and philosophy.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58And one of the things that started to entrance Alexander
0:45:58 > 0:46:00were the stories of the Persians.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Cyrus the Great became a particular hero of his.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11His father said to him, "My son,
0:46:11 > 0:46:15"seek out a kingdom worthy of yourself.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18"Macedonia's too small for you."
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Alexander became king of Macedonia at the age of 20
0:46:23 > 0:46:25after his father was assassinated.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30His imperial ambition was said to be limitless.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35After finishing off independent Greece,
0:46:35 > 0:46:37he crashed through today's Turkey,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40marched into the Middle East, then into Egypt,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43before conquering the old enemy - Persia -
0:46:43 > 0:46:48and carrying on towards Afghanistan and the borders of India.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Along with war and conquest...
0:46:53 > 0:46:58...Alexander founded 70 Greek-style towns...
0:46:58 > 0:47:02across North Africa and Asia.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06And Greek became the new common language across his empire.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16Alexander's Macedonian veterans scattered his enemies
0:47:16 > 0:47:18wherever he led them,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20but, like his hero Cyrus,
0:47:20 > 0:47:24Alexander was fascinated by the people he conquered.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29And he thought that knitting together their different traditions
0:47:29 > 0:47:34could create a new kind of almost multicultural empire.
0:47:34 > 0:47:40Cyrus the Great had tempered tyranny with tolerance,
0:47:40 > 0:47:42but Alexander wanted to go a lot further
0:47:42 > 0:47:47and actually mingle Macedonian and Greek customs
0:47:47 > 0:47:48with Persian customs.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52So he started wearing Persian clothes
0:47:52 > 0:47:55and the Persian royal crown,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and even making people prostrate themselves in front of him
0:47:58 > 0:48:00in the Asian manner.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02So it's not surprising
0:48:02 > 0:48:07that his plain-speaking Macedonian generals became outraged
0:48:07 > 0:48:11at his decadent clothing and his increasingly foreign habits.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Even Alexander's trusted friend Cleitus
0:48:16 > 0:48:18thought he was going too far.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20- Alexander!- Cleitus?
0:48:20 > 0:48:23Cleitus was the leader of the Macedonian cavalry.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27He'd once saved Alexander's life in battle.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Now, he was taunting him for being more Persian than Greek.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43The Macedonians were famous across Greece for being great drinkers,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46and Alexander was no exception.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49YELLING
0:48:51 > 0:48:55But this fight was just a bit worse than your average drunken brawl.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21After the death of Cleitus,
0:49:21 > 0:49:26Alexander is said to have wept and fasted for three days.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32But he then briskly wiped the tears away and marched straight on,
0:49:32 > 0:49:37until his empire was the biggest the world had ever known.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45And to bond his peoples, he went far further
0:49:45 > 0:49:49in trying to fuse the cultures of Greece and Asia.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53He married not one, but two Asian princesses himself.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58And he then applied the same logic to his troops.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02Alexander organised a mass wedding of Macedonian soldiers
0:50:02 > 0:50:04and Persian women and gave them all
0:50:04 > 0:50:06generous golden dowries.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11And the marriages were extended way down into the Macedonian army.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14Alexander hoped that the children would become
0:50:14 > 0:50:20rulers for his new empire - a literal marriage of East and West.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Alexander wanted the children
0:50:25 > 0:50:28of these hundreds of Greek and Persian marriages
0:50:28 > 0:50:31to be the beginning of a new warrior people
0:50:31 > 0:50:35who'd preserve his empire long into the future.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40But within a year of the mass wedding, aged just 32,
0:50:40 > 0:50:44Alexander was dead - some say poisoned.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48It's more likely that he died unheroically of typhoid fever.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58Alexander's gigantic empire was divided up between feuding successors,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02but the spread of the Greek language and culture continued
0:51:02 > 0:51:08from Athens to Syria, North Africa, right the way to Afghanistan.
0:51:08 > 0:51:09And the culture of ancient Greece,
0:51:09 > 0:51:14its architecture and its legends, its poetry and its philosophy
0:51:14 > 0:51:17would shape the classical world
0:51:17 > 0:51:19and then, later, all the West.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27In the broad sweep of human history, Alexander's empire was a heartbeat,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29a mere puff of smoke,
0:51:29 > 0:51:35but he acted as a kind of giant, bloody, cultural whisk -
0:51:35 > 0:51:40churning together the Greek and the Persian worlds.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47And his story reminds us of the uncomfortable truth
0:51:47 > 0:51:49that war, however horrible,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53is one of the great change-makers in human history.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00To achieve his empire, Alexander had swept aside
0:52:00 > 0:52:03all remnants of Greek democracy,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06but the deeper challenge to the idea of democracy
0:52:06 > 0:52:09didn't come merely from force of arms,
0:52:09 > 0:52:14but from the sheer difficulty of running an open society.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16CHANTING
0:52:16 > 0:52:20And this challenge had been thrown down 80 years earlier,
0:52:20 > 0:52:22not by a glory-drunk hero,
0:52:22 > 0:52:26but an old man who asked awkward questions -
0:52:26 > 0:52:29questions which are still being asked today.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36400 BC, and the Athens of this time wasn't a happy place.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41Wars had drained away her wealth
0:52:41 > 0:52:45and social conflict ate away at her young democracy.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Tyrants had briefly seized power and used thuggery
0:52:48 > 0:52:51to suppress the voice of poorer citizens.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57When democracy was restored, it felt itself besieged.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04And one of its most contemptuous critics
0:53:04 > 0:53:07was the philosopher Socrates.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Today we remember Socrates as the father of philosophy,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16the founder of a tradition picked up by Plato and Aristotle.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21But in Athens, at the time,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24he was seen as a dangerous influence -
0:53:24 > 0:53:30a dissident who was a genuine threat to this embattled democracy.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35He taught his students to question everything.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42For him, learning to ask challenging questions was essential
0:53:42 > 0:53:44to the development of a mature civilisation.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49So he jabbed and pinched the Athenian democracy.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Political leaders lacked virtue
0:53:52 > 0:53:56and some voters were simply too stupid to choose well.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59This was dangerous stuff.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03And Socrates' adoring pupils included aristocrats
0:54:03 > 0:54:06who would later revolt against the democracy,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09turning tyrant themselves.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17The greatest problems for would-be democracies have never really been
0:54:17 > 0:54:20about voting systems or institutions,
0:54:20 > 0:54:23hard though those are to get right.
0:54:23 > 0:54:29It's about how an open society deals with genuinely subversive critics.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33Socrates was challenging the Athenian democrats
0:54:33 > 0:54:36to come up with an answer to this dilemma.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39When the democracy is under threat,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41for how long do you hold on
0:54:41 > 0:54:45to your principles of free thought and free speech?
0:54:45 > 0:54:51When do you give way to censorship and repression?
0:54:52 > 0:54:59By 399 BC, the authorities had had enough of Socrates' awkward questions.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07SPEAKS IN ANCIENT GREEK
0:55:07 > 0:55:11They panicked and arrested him.
0:55:13 > 0:55:20Socrates was tried on charges of corrupting the youth of the city
0:55:20 > 0:55:22and undermining the government.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26He gently mocked the court as he forced them to confront
0:55:26 > 0:55:30the consequences of their own censorship.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34He was narrowly convicted.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36The sentence was death.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42In Athens, the death sentence was carried out
0:55:42 > 0:55:44by making the prisoner drink
0:55:44 > 0:55:48the poisonous juice of the hemlock plant.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52Socrates could easily have bolted for exile,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55which would perhaps be an easier way out for his critics as well,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58but his principles would not allow that.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02And so he said goodbye to his wife and his family
0:56:02 > 0:56:07and, with his students around him, he calmly prepared to die.
0:56:10 > 0:56:15Better that than shut up or live as a hypocrite.
0:56:21 > 0:56:28Confucius had argued that the good society is ordered and obedient.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33For Socrates, it was stroppy, dissident and open.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48Thinking of the differences between China and the West today,
0:56:48 > 0:56:51it's pretty obvious that these ancient stories
0:56:51 > 0:56:54still haunt the modern world.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58And so they should.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06One of the great Greek tragedies was the death of Socrates.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11He showed that even this wonderful, brave, pioneering society thought
0:57:11 > 0:57:15there were some questions too dangerous to ask.
0:57:15 > 0:57:21And even the greatest minds were not able to express themselves quite freely.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26And he leaves all open societies with the same dilemma.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30When you feel genuinely threatened by a dissident,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34when you may feel your own liberties are challenged,
0:57:34 > 0:57:39do you lock them up? Do you shut them up?
0:57:39 > 0:57:44Ancient Athens didn't have the answer to this, and nor do we.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47In the next programme,
0:57:47 > 0:57:50the word and the sword.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Allah...
0:57:53 > 0:57:56Who would rule the world?
0:57:56 > 0:57:59Kings and emperors...
0:58:00 > 0:58:02..or the gods?
0:58:03 > 0:58:06If you'd like to a little bit more about how the past is revealed,
0:58:06 > 0:58:12you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That?
0:58:12 > 0:58:16Just call 0845 366 0255,
0:58:16 > 0:58:22or go to bbc.co.uk/history
0:58:22 > 0:58:25and follow the links to the Open University.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd