Anaximander

Near East (621–478 BCE): Transformation, Conquest, and Cultural Renewal

Josiah’s Religious Reforms and Judah’s Fall

During the early part of this age, Josiah, king of Judah, implements sweeping religious reforms that establish the worship of Yahweh as the sole deity. This monotheistic movement centralizes religious practices in Jerusalem. Josiah aims to reunify Judah and Israel, leveraging the decline of the Assyrian Empire, but is killed at Megiddo in 609 BCE while confronting Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II. This marks the end of Judah’s independence, and subsequently, the kingdom falls under Egyptian and later Babylonian domination.

Babylonian Ascendancy and the Judahite Exile

Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon decisively defeats Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BCE, subsequently asserting Babylonian dominance over the Near East. Jerusalem falls to Babylon in 586 BCE after a prolonged siege. The First Temple is destroyed, and a significant portion of the Judahite population, including King Zedekiah, is deported to Babylon—an event known as the Babylonian Captivity. Scattered in exile, Judahites maintain their identity through adherence to their religious laws and rituals such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, festivals, dietary rules, and cleanliness laws. These customs become foundational in preserving Jewish cultural identity.

Egyptian Revival and Saite Dynasty

Pharaoh Necho II, followed by his successor Amasis II, revitalizes Egypt, fostering cultural and economic growth. Amasis II adorns temples in Lower Egypt with splendid monolithic shrines and other monumental constructions, remnants of which still exist. The Cypriot kingdoms recognize Egyptian overlordship under Amasis, adopting Egyptian artistic and sartorial conventions. However, Egypt's strength is transient; Persian forces under Cambyses II conquer Egypt in 525 BCE, ending the Twenty-sixth Dynasty and integrating Egypt as a province within the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire. Persian emperors are thus recorded as Egypt's Twenty-seventh Dynasty.

Kush and the Shift to Meroë

Egypt under Pharaoh Psamtik II invades and sacks Napata in 590 BCE, causing the Kushite court to relocate southward to the iron-rich and secure region of Meroë. Here, Kush develops independently for centuries, insulated from Egypt’s subsequent periods of Persian, Greek, and Roman domination.

Phoenician Resistance and Babylonian Control

Phoenician cities experience increased turbulence during Babylonian dominance (605–539 BCE). The city of Tyre notably endures a thirteen-year siege by Nebuchadnezzar, finally capitulating in 574 BCE, resulting in enslavement and the deposition of its king.

Lydia and the Ionian Cities

Croesus of Lydia, ruling from Sardis, initially controls western Anatolia until defeated by Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 BCE. The Ionian Greeks initially welcome Persian rule to escape Lydian dominance but soon rebel against the Persians’ imposition of tyrants. This triggers the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BCE), the opening conflict of the Greco-Persian Wars, a series of conflicts lasting until 448 BCE.

Philosophical Advances in Ionia

This period sees significant philosophical developments in Ionia. Thales of Miletus, active around 585 BCE, is known for predicting a solar eclipse and promoting water as the primary element. His student, Anaximander, introduces the concept of apeiron (the boundless), proposes a cylindrical earth, and creates the first known map of the world. His successor, Anaximenes, suggests air as the fundamental substance, explaining natural phenomena through its condensation and rarefaction.

Judahite Return and Temple Reconstruction

In 539 BCE, Persian conquest of Babylon under Cyrus the Great permits Judahites to return to Jerusalem. Led by Zerubbabel, they reconstruct the Temple by 515 BCE, despite opposition from local Samaritans.

Linguistic Developments and Cultural Influences

During this era, languages such as Lydian and Lycian begin to be recorded using the West Greek alphabet. Additionally, Egypt's influence significantly impacts Cypriot artistic practices, evident in surviving limestone sculptures.

Moab’s Disappearance and Edomite Migration

Moab disappears from historical records during Persian domination, with Arabian tribes like the Nabataeans infiltrating its territory. Edomites, pressed by Arab incursions, migrate into southern Judah, becoming known in later Roman periods as Idumaeans.

Samaritans and Religious Identity

The Samaritan population, regarded by Judahites as a mixed group originating from Assyrian colonists and native Israelites, adheres strictly to the Pentateuch, worshiping Yahweh and honoring Moses as their sole prophet. Their contentious relationship with returning Judahites becomes a defining cultural dynamic in post-exilic Judah.

Cultural and Philosophical Flourishing

The period concludes with the philosophical contributions of Heraclitus of Ephesus, who emphasizes the constant flux of reality and the unity of opposites, advancing ideas about change, identity, and the logos, influencing subsequent Greek philosophy and Western thought profoundly.

This age thus encapsulates an era of profound political transformations, religious realignments, and intellectual flourishing, setting the stage for enduring cultural legacies throughout the Near East.

Thales’ pupil Anaximander challenges Thales' position that a single element can be the origin of all.

He argues that, because known elements are constantly opposing and changing into one another, something different from these elements must therefore underlie, and cause, changes, postulating the apeiron "boundless or "indefinite" as the original and sustaining substance.

Believing Earth to be cylindrically shaped, Anaximander produces the first map of the known world and speculates about the origins of marine life.

Anaximenes, the last thinker of the Milesian school founded by Thales, maintains that the primary substance is air (Greek, aer).

He rejects as unnecessary Anaximander’s notion of "the infinite," suggesting that the four elements—fire, earth, air and water—are merely forms of one basic substance.

Everything else in the world, including the gods, is no more than condensed or rarefied air: condensation transforms air into wind, water and earth; rarefaction heats air and transforms it into fire, in this way explaining the sun and other celestial bodies.

Near East (561–550 BCE): Wealth of Croesus and Ionian Intellectual Flourishing

Croesus and the Prosperity of Lydia

The wealthy Croesus, succeeding his father Alyattes as king of Lydia, rapidly becomes renowned for his extraordinary riches, derived chiefly from extensive trade networks. Croesus notably issues coins made from electrum—an alloy of gold and silver that the Greeks call "white gold" (today known as "green gold"). Although electrum coins had been minted previously, possibly beginning with King Gyges, Croesus refines the system significantly. His earliest coins bear distinctive motifs: facing heads of a lion and a bull, a design he later transfers to a groundbreaking bimetallic series featuring separate coins of pure gold and pure silver. Recent scholarship debates whether this pure-metal coinage was issued by Croesus himself or introduced later by his Persian successors. Nonetheless, Croesus' innovations deeply influence monetary systems in Greece, coinciding with the initial Greek production of silver coins.

Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis

During this period, Croesus asserts authority over the prominent Ionian city of Ephesus, which had previously been ruled by local tyrants allied by marriage to Lydia’s kings. His patronage significantly enhances Ephesus' religious and architectural status, especially through the lavish rebuilding of the Artemisium (Temple of Artemis), one of the ancient world’s architectural marvels. Following a destructive flood in the seventh century BCE, reconstruction under Croesus' sponsorship begins around 560 BCE, led by the acclaimed Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. The temple, reputedly the first Greek temple constructed entirely of marble, spans approximately 377 by 180 feet (115 by 55 meters), becoming the largest and most celebrated temple of its era. Decorated with detailed columns bearing reliefs of mythical figures and inscriptions commemorating Croesus’ donations, the Artemisium houses a revered archaic statue of Artemis. Its grandeur secures its place as one of the legendary Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. At this time, the Ephesians relocate their primary settlement onto the plain, prompting legal and civic reforms reportedly drafted by the Athenian lawgiver Aristarchus.

Intellectual Legacy of the Milesian Philosophers

In the nearby city of Miletus, significant philosophical advancements continue to shape early Western thought. The pioneering philosopher Thales of Miletus, renowned for his work on geometry, astronomy, and navigational methods, passes away around this time. Thales famously holds that water is the fundamental substance underlying all existence, asserting that the Earth itself floats upon water.

Thales’ student and intellectual heir, Anaximander of Miletus, also dies shortly after his teacher. Distinguished for challenging Thales' single-element theory, Anaximander introduces the concept of the apeiron ("boundless" or "indefinite"), an infinite and undefined principle from which all matter emerges and into which it eventually returns. Rejecting traditional mythology, Anaximander seeks rational explanations for cosmological phenomena, hypothesizing a cylindrical Earth and creating the first known map of the world, while also proposing early theories about marine life's origins.

Completing this lineage of Milesian philosophers, Anaximenes proposes yet another innovative cosmology, suggesting air (aer) as the foundational substance of all existence. According to Anaximenes, transformations among air, water, fire, and earth result from processes of condensation and rarefaction—thus offering early explanations for various natural phenomena, including celestial bodies and divine entities.

Legacy of the Era

The decade spanning 561 to 550 BCE is marked by extraordinary cultural and economic dynamism in the Near East. Lydia under Croesus achieves unmatched commercial prosperity and innovation in monetary systems, leaving a lasting economic legacy. Ephesus, benefiting from Lydian patronage, becomes architecturally iconic through the construction of the magnificent Artemisium. Concurrently, the Milesian philosophers—Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes—profoundly influence the intellectual landscape, laying foundational stones for Western philosophy and science through their rational, observational approaches to understanding nature.

Thales of Miletus, who has made detailed observations on triangulation navigation methods, dies holding the belief that the Earth floats on water; that all things come to be from water; and that all things somehow consist of water.

Thales’ pupil and successor Anaximander of Miletus, who wrote a comprehensive history of the universe that hypothesizes nonmythological explanations for the creation, dies only a year after his teacher.

Challenging Thales' position that a single element can be the origin of all, Anaximander argued that, because known elements are constantly opposing and changing into one another, something different from these elements must therefore underlie and cause changes, postulating the “apeiron” ("boundless," or "indefinite") as the originative and sustaining substance.

Anaximander, believing Earth to be cylindrically shaped, drew the first known world map; he also speculated about the origins of marine life.

Greek philosopher Anaximenes, the last of the Milesian school founded by Thales, maintains that the primary substance is air (Greek, “aer”); everything else in the world, including the gods, is no more than condensed or rarefied air: condensation transforms air into wind, water and earth; rarefaction heats air and transforms it into fire, in this way explaining the sun and other celestial bodies.