“The History of the Ancient Civilizations” in 6 volumes is one of the best-known works by historian Max Duncker. The author's object in regard to the ancient East was not to retrace the beginning of human civilization, but rather to understand and establish the value and extent of those early phases of civilization to which the entire development of the human race goes back. The narrative embraces the independent civilizations of the ancient East which came to exercise a mutual influence on each other. First it follows the realm on the Nile and the kingdoms of Hither Asia as far as the point where the nations of Iran began to influence their destinies, and then it attempts to set forth the peculiar development of the Aryan tribes in the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges, down to the times of Tshandragupta and Asoka. Then follows the history of the Bactrians, the Medes, and the Persians, until the period when the nations of the table-land of Iran were united by Cyrus and Darius with the countries of Western Asia, when Aryan life and Aryan civilization gained the supremacy over the whole region from Ceylon to the Nile and the Hellespont. The forms of life at which the great empires of Asia had arrived are finally brought face to face with the more youthful civilization attained by the Hellenes in their mountain cantons. This new development is followed down to the first great shock when East and West met in conflict, and the Achaemenids sought to crush the Hellenes under the weight of Asia. With the failure of this attempt “The History of Antiquity” concludes.
