The ancient or 'classical' world begins with the invention of written language, and follows the organization of human culture into governments and societies much like we practice today. Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome were civilizations that lasted for hundreds — and in Egypt's case thousands of years. They were super powers because they brought law and order to their people, providing a certain amount of peace and stability. Peace and stability leads to a civic life, creating the space for creativity, education and commerce. This in turn grows prosperity and enables building projects, temples, roads and art. Written language, unified law, and centralized government allowed these ancient cultures to thrive on a scale that warped past hunter and gatherer societies and created the foundation on which we create our modern civilization in the west.
Super power of all super powers.
4000 BCE-30 BCE
Poetry, war, and the invention of law
3500 BCE-1000 BCE
The lost faces of the ancient world
3000 BCE-1200 BCE
Three dynasties birth Chinese art and philosophy.
2070 BCE-256 BCE
A Nubian Empire rivals Egypt for 1000 years
2000 BCE-400 CE
History's greatest navigators
2000 BCE-500 CE
The pouting ancestors of Mesoamerica
1400 BCE-400 BCE
Know Thyself
800 BCE-31 BCE
Death & Gold
800 BCE-43 CE
A mysteriously happy people at the fringes of the classical world
768 BCE-100 BCE
The roads make the empire
753 BCE-530 CE
Human-animal hybrids in the melting pot of ancient cultures
600 BCE-500 CE
City of Water & Fire
400 BCE-600 CE
The largest economy in the world for 1500 years
230 BCE-550 CE