The Era of Hellenism in Russian school textbooks on the history of the Ancient World

Gabelko Oleg Doctor of History Russian State University for the Humanities 125047, Russia, Moscow, Moscow, Miusskaya Square, 6 cappadox@yandex.ru

Aleksandrova Ol'ga PhD in History Herzen Russian State Pedagogigcal University 191186, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. Moika River, 48 olgaalex@lenta.ru Other publications by this author

REFLECTION OF THE HISTORY OF HELLENISM IN CURRENT RUSSIAN SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

The history of Hellenism is one of the most interesting and complex periods in the history of not only Ancient Greece, but also Eastern civilizations, as well as the entire ancient world as a whole. This is the time of the appearance of new states on the political map and the formation of a complex system of relations between the peoples who inhabited them. Many countries were formed on the ruins of the empire of Alexander the Great: the Seleucid kingdom and Ptolemaic Egypt, Pergamum and Pontus, Bithynia and Cappadocia, the Parthian and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms, as well as Macedonia proper and individual Greek polises that maintained formal independence. The Greeks and Macedonians now lived side by side with the Persians, Egyptians, Babylonians and other peoples who had no less a long history and a rich culture. Despite the fact that Macedonians and Greeks were at the head of these state formations, they could not avoid close interaction with the local nobility, as a result of which a completely unique culture appeared, combining the traditions of the ancient East with the Greek-Macedonian culture. At the same time, the history of this period was characterized by constant military conflicts and the struggle for hegemony, which eventually weakened the Hellenistic states and eventually led to their absorption by the Roman Republic. It is natural that researchers, starting with I. Droysen, who introduced the term "Hellenism" into scientific circulation ^[1], often turned to this era, and only the enumeration of scientific literature devoted to various aspects of the history of Hellenism could take more than one page ^{[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]}.

It is natural to believe that such an important period should have been appropriately reflected in the school course of the history of the ancient world and textbooks, because familiarity with the history of Hellenism helps not only to better understand historical processes, but also to study more deeply the history of culture and science that flourished in this era. Consideration of textbook materials, which remain the main source of information for schoolchildren, gives, however, a very ambiguous picture.

First of all, it should be noted that at the moment there is still no single approved historical and cultural standard for universal history, which would clearly define the list of semantic units required for study. In the draft standard in the section "Hellenistic period" we can see the sub-item "The world after Alexander (334-281 BC)", which includes the following didactic units: the struggle for the "Alexander" heritage. The board of diadochs. The collapse of Alexander's empire into Hellenistic states. The essence of Hellenism. The heyday of Greek-Eastern statehood and economy (281-150 BC). Hellenistic culture and science. Religious syncretism. Hellenism and its worldwide historical significance. The crisis and collapse of Hellenistic statehood. The conquest of the Hellenistic states by the Roman Empire*. The analysis of the display of these didactic units by the authors of current school textbooks will allow us to form an idea of the general trends in the display of the history of Hellenism in the framework of school education.

Let us now turn directly to the textbooks. The federal list of textbooks for the 2023-24 academic year includes three lines of textbooks on Universal History. For the 5th grade of secondary school, this is a textbook by Vigasin A.A., Godera G.I., Sventsitskaya I.S. ed. Iskenderova A.A. ^[9], textbook by Nikishin V.O., Strelkova O.V., Tomashevich O.V., Mikhailovsky F.A. ed. Karpova S.P. ^[10], and also a textbook by E.V. Saplina, A.A. Nemirovsky, E.I. Solomatina, S.V. Tyrin, ed. Medinsky V.R. ^[11]**It is to these textbooks, as to those that are used directly in schools, that we will turn in most cases. In addition to textbooks included in the list recommended by the Ministry of Education, there is a large selection of manuals that for some reason were not included in it or were included in similar lists earlier ***. We will also address some of them in the course of our research.

The era of Hellenism is presented in textbooks in two sections: a paragraph devoted directly to the Hellenistic states, and part of the paragraph on the Roman conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean. The most standard template for a story directly about the era of Hellenism is as follows: the authors briefly mention that after Alexander's death during the many years of wars, his power broke up into separate kingdoms, the most significant of which was the Egyptian under the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and then describe in detail the capital of the state, Alexandria, and its cultural significance. Special attention is paid to the layout of the city, the Alexandrian Library and Museum are mentioned, as well as such scientists as Archimedes, Callimachus, Aristarchus of Samos, Theophrastus, Euclid and Eratosthenes. As a rule, as additional information, you can find a brief mention of Pergamon and the contribution of this state to the development of world culture. The pictorial material is also quite standard: for example, almost all textbooks have an image of the Faros lighthouse. This is how the paragraph "In Alexandria of Egypt" is constructed in the "classic" textbook of Vigasin A.A., Godera G.I. and Sventsitskaya I.S., which has already passed twelve editions with minor changes ^{[9, pp. 208-212]}, and in the textbook of Saplina E.V., Nemirovsky A.A., Solomatina E.I., Tyrin S.V. ^{[11, pp. 179-184]}. Interestingly, I.S. Sventsitskaya, one of the authors of the first textbook, was engaged, among other topics, in the history of Hellenism ^[12], and under her editorship, the translation into Russian of I. Bikerman's work on the Seleucid state was carried out ^[13]. The narrative in the paragraph "Greek states in the East" of the textbook Nikishin V.O., Strelkov O.V., Tomashevich O.V. and Mikhailovsky F.A. is constructed in a similar way, but its text is much more detailed and, as it seems, quite difficult for a fifth-grade student of a comprehensive school. The authors describe in detail not only Ptolemaic Egypt and its capital, but also talk about the Seleucid state, mention the Pergamon and Pontic kingdoms ^{[10, pp. 210-214]}.

Not all authors focus on the essence of Hellenism and the structure of Hellenistic states, which seems to be an omission. As a rule, one can only find a dry statement of fact: "The states under the influence of Greek culture are called Hellenistic in science" ^{[9, C. 208]}, or the statement that "the most privileged group of society were the Greeks and Macedonians" ^{[11, C.180]}. The exception here is the textbook of Nikishin V.O., Strelkov O.V., Tomashevich O.V. and Mikhailovsky F.A., in which the authors highlight the main features of the Hellenistic era and focus on the interpenetration of cultures ^{[10, pp.211-212]}. It is worth noting that in many ways this textbook is a reworking of an earlier textbook by F.A. Mikhailovsky, in which the author also dwelt in some detail on the features of the Hellenistic era and briefly talked about the main Hellenistic states ^{[14, pp. 200-202]}.

In two of the three current textbooks, we can find a map that clearly shows the geographical position of the Hellenistic states, and tasks for schoolchildren to it ^{[9, C. 211; 10, C. 213]}. However, the tasks offered to students in general, as a rule, are focused on reproducing information from the text of the textbook. Unfortunately, there are practically no tasks for pictorial material, and those that are available are designed to describe drawings, but not to extract any information ^{[9, C. 212]}. An interesting attempt to expand the range of sources of knowledge is made in the textbook by E.V. Saplina, A.A. Nemirovsky, E.I. Solomatina and S.V. Tyrin, where in one of the tasks the authors suggest that schoolchildren turn to the Internet and answer the question why the scientist Archimedes is depicted together with a Roman warrior on an ancient mosaic ^{[11, p. 183]}.

The second main plot – the conquest of the Hellenistic states by Rome is also presented quite standardly. The authors of the textbooks briefly mention the wars of the Romans with Macedonia and Syria, while not even always naming the rulers by name, limiting themselves to the definition of "Syrian king" or "Macedonian king": so, the name of Antiochus III is found only in one textbook, but the authors do not mention Philip V at all. The same paragraph tells about the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage ^{[9, pp. 232-237; 11, pp. 214-217]}. Separately, V.I. Ukolova's textbook can be singled out, which was included in the federal list until 2023, where the Syrian state is not mentioned at all, and Macedonia is named the strongest opponent of Rome in the East ^{[15, p. 134]}. On the contrary, the textbook by E.V. Saplina, A.A. Nemirovsky, E.I. Solomatina and S.V. Tyrin turns out to be the most detailed here: the authors devote separate paragraphs of the paragraph to the wars of Rome with Macedonia and the Seleucid kingdom, respectively ^{[10, pp.240-242]}. The plot of Egypt's subjugation to Rome stands out separately, it is mentioned in the paragraphs devoted to the coming to power of Octavian Augustus ^{[9, p. 258; 10, p. 268; 11, p. 233.]}. Again, it should be noted the extremely poor use of cartographic material, with which it is possible to clearly show the expansion of the Roman state during this period and submission of Hellenistic states to Rome ^{[9, C.233]}.

Just as in the case of the presentation of the material about the Hellenistic states in general, the questions offered to students at the end of the paragraph are aimed mainly at reproducing information from the text of the textbook.

In a number of textbooks, a dictionary of the most important concepts is separately highlighted. The concept of "Hellenism" is taken out as such an important concept only in the textbook of Nikishin V.O., Strelkov O.V., Tomashevich O.V. and Mikhailovsky F.A. ^{[10, p. 317]}. In the latter there is also a dictionary of personalities, where you can find two founders of Hellenistic dynasties: Ptolemy and Seleucus ^{[10, C. 322]}.

If we take a look at textbooks that were previously included in the federal lists, but were subsequently excluded from them for various reasons, we can conclude that the brevity of the reflection of the history of Hellenism for Russian textbooks, on the one hand, is very traditional ^{[16, pp.186-189]}. So, for example, in the textbook of Andreevskaya T.P., Belkin M.V. and Vanina E.V., the history of the Hellenistic era is again reduced, in fact, to the description of Alexandria of Egypt. Only at the beginning of the paragraph is it sparingly mentioned that "After the death of Alexander, many states were formed in the territories conquered by him. The most significant of these states were Egyptian and Syrian" ^{[17, pp. 193-198]}. Interestingly, the Seleucid empire is then mentioned by the authors in the paragraph devoted to the Roman conquests, which tells about the Battle of Magnesia and even gives a portrait of King Antiochus III ^{[17, C.230]}.

On the other hand, a somewhat different picture could be seen, for example, in the textbook of Danilov D.D., Sizova E.V., Kuznetsov A.V., Kuznetsova S.S. and Nikolaeva A.A., where the authors combined the paragraphs devoted to Alexander's campaigns and the further history of the Hellenistic states into the theme "Hellenism – the meeting of the West and the East" ^{[18, pp. 185-202]}. This manual repeatedly emphasizes the connection of Greek and Eastern cultures, pays much attention to the peculiarities of Hellenistic states, the achievements of culture and science of that time, and one of the main conclusions is formulated as "Hellenistic civilization has become a new stage in the history of Ancient Greece and the Ancient East." The topic is also covered in some detail in the textbook . Ukolova and L.P. Marinovich: despite the fact that the main attention is again paid to Alexandria, the authors also talk about the main Hellenistic states: the Seleucid kingdom, Egypt, Macedonia and Pergamum, while accompanying the text of the manual with a map ^{[19, pp.233-227]}.

Thus, it is possible to identify a general trend, expressed to a greater or lesser extent, in the coverage of the history of the Hellenistic era in school textbooks. The authors mainly turn to the vivid example of Alexandria of Egypt, focusing on this city to a much greater extent than on the fact of the synthesis of Greek and Oriental cultures in general. The names of the rulers, both the founders of Hellenistic dynasties and their descendants, are mentioned infrequently, much more attention is paid to the development of science and art.  Of course, textbooks are limited in the selection and presentation of material both by the cognitive abilities of fifth-grade students, whom it is important not to overload with information, and by a large volume of historical events that need to be packed into a small volume. In light of this, the authors' decision to focus more on culture and art seems quite logical and logical, but the choice of a specific material does not always seem appropriate. As a result, students may not have a complete understanding of the features of the Hellenistic era, an understanding of the significance of this period for the history of the ancient world and the degree of its influence on the further development of civilization. 

*The concept of a new educational and methodological complex on world history. Project. p. 39. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: https://www.tsput.ru/his_seminar/progect.pdf .

**Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated 21.09.2022 N 858 (ed. dated 21.07.2023) "On approval of the Federal list of textbooks approved for use in the implementation of state-accredited educational programs of primary general, basic general, secondary general education by organizations engaged in educational activities and the establishment of the deadline for the use of excluded textbooks" (Registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation 01.11.2022 N 70799)

***Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation No. 345 dated 12/28/2018 "On the federal list of textbooks recommended for use in the implementation of state-accredited educational programs of primary general, basic general, secondary general education" [Electronic resource] // SPS ConsultantPlus. Access mode: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_315457 /;Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated December 19, 2012 No. 1067 "On approval of federal lists of textbooks recommended (approved) for use in the educational process in educational institutions implementing educational programs of general education and having state accreditation for the 2013/14 academic year"). // SPS ConsultantPlus. Access mode: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_141705 /.