in Athens
Ancient Greece refers to a period of Greek history that lasted from the
Greek Dark Ages () to the end of
antiquity (). In common usage, it can refer to all Greek history beforeor includingthe
Roman Empire, but historians tend to use the term more precisely. Some include the periods of the
Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations, while others argue that these civilizations were so different from later Greek cultures that they should be classed separately. Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first
Olympic Games in 776 BC, but most historians now extend the term back to about 1000 BC, toward the beginning of the Greek Dark Ages. The Greek Dark Ages are succeeded by the
Archaic period, which began and lasted until the
second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC. It was during this period that the
Greek alphabet and
early Greek literature developed, as well as the
poleis ("city-states") of Ancient Greece. With the end of the Dark Ages,
Greeks spread to the shores of the
Black Sea,
Southern Italy (the so-called "
Magna Graecia") and
Asia Minor. The
Classical period began during the
Greco-Persian wars in the 5th century BC and was marked by increased autonomy from the
Persian Empire, as well as the flourishing of Ancient Greek
democracy,
art,
theater,
literature, and
philosophy. The traditional date for the end of the Classical Greek period is the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and the period that follows is termed the
Hellenistic, ending with the rise of the
Roman Empire at the end of the first millennium BC. Not everyone treats the Classical Greek and Hellenic periods as distinctsome writers treat the Ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running until the proliferation of
Christianity in the 3rd century. Ancient Greece is considered by many historians to be the foundational culture of
Western civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art, and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the
Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various
neo-classical revivals in 18th- and 19th-century Europe and the Americas.
Iron Age (1100–800 BC) The Greek Dark Ages ( BC) refers to the period of Greek history from the presumed
Dorian invasion and
end of the Mycenaean civilization in the 11th century BC to the rise of the first
Greek city-states in the 9th century BC and the epics of
Homer and earliest writings in the
Greek alphabet in the 8th century BC. The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization coincided with the fall of several other large empires in the near east, most notably the
Hittite and the
Egyptian. The cause is still somewhat mysterious, but has often been attributed to the invasion of hypothesized
Sea Peoples wielding iron weapons. A hypothesized
Dorian invasion may have also contributed, as asserted by ancient Greek legend but unsubstantiated by the archaeological record. Legend asserts that
Dorians migrated down into Greece equipped with superior iron weapons, colonizing and easily dispersing the already weakened Mycenaeans. The period that follows these events is collectively known as the Greek Dark Ages. Kings ruled throughout this period until eventually they were replaced with an
aristocracy, then still later, in some areas, an aristocracy within an aristocracy—an elite of the elite. Warfare shifted from a focus on the cavalry to a great emphasis on infantry. Due to its cheapness of production and local availability, iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice in the manufacturing of tools and weapons. Slowly, however, equality grew among the different sects of people, leading to the dethronement of the various kings and the rise of the family. At the end of this period of stagnation, the Greek civilization was engulfed in a renaissance that spread throughout the Greek world as far as the
Black Sea and
Spain. Writing was relearned from the
Phoenicians, eventually spreading north into
Italy and the
Gauls.
Archaic Greece In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and
Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the
Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC, written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley, and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges. The Archaic period can be understood as the
Orientalizing period, when Greece was at the fringe, but not under the sway, of the budding
Neo-Assyrian Empire. Greece adopted significant amounts of cultural elements from the Orient, in art as well as in religion and mythology. Archaeologically, Archaic Greece is marked by
Geometric pottery.
Classical Greece in
Stoa of Attalus, one of the earliest nameable historians whose work survives. at
Thermopylae'' by
Jacques-Louis David. The basic unit of politics in Ancient Greece was the
polis (), sometimes translated as "
city-state". The term lends itself to the modern English word "politics", which literally means "the things of the
polis". At least in theory, each
polis was politically independent. However, some
poleis were subordinate to others (e.g., a colony traditionally deferred to its mother city), and some had governments wholly dependent upon others (e.g., the
Thirty Tyrants in
Athens was imposed by
Sparta following the
Peloponnesian War), but the titularly supreme power in each
polis was located within that city. This meant that when Greece went to war (e.g., against the
Persian Empire), it took the form of an alliance going to war. It also gave ample opportunity for wars within Greece between different
poleis.
Persian Wars Two major wars shaped the Classical Greek world. The first was the
Persian Wars (499–449 BC), recounted in the Greek historian
Herodotus's
Histories. By the late 6th century BC, the
Achaemenid Persian Empire ruled over all Greek city-states in
Ionia (the western coast of modern-day
Turkey) and had made territorial gains in the
Balkans and Eastern Europe proper as well. In 499 BC, the Greek cities of
Ionia, led by
Miletus,
revolted against the
Persian Empire and were supported by some mainland cities, including
Athens and
Eretria. After the uprising had been quelled,
Darius I launched the
first Persian invasion of Greece to exact revenge on the mainland Greeks. In 492 BC, Persian general
Mardonius led an army (supported by a fleet) across the
Hellespont, re-subjugating
Thrace and adding
Macedonia as a fully-subjugated client kingdom. However, before he could reach Greece proper, his fleet was destroyed in a storm near
Mount Athos. In 490 BC, Darius sent another fleet directly across the
Aegean Sea (rather than following the land route as Mardonius had done) to subdue Athens. After destroying the city of
Eretria, the fleet landed and faced the Athenian army at
Marathon, which ended in a decisive Athenian victory. In 480 BC,
Xerxes I, successor to Darius I, launched the
Second Persian invasion of Greece. The Persians scored early victories, most notably at
Thermopylae, where a small Greek force led by King
Leonidas I of Sparta held the pass for three days before being outflanked and overwhelmed. Persian forces overran northern and central Greece,
capturing and burning the evacuated city of Athens. However, the Greek city-states soon turned the tide with a bold naval victory at
Salamis later that year. The Athenian general
Themistocles lured the larger Persian fleet into the narrow straits, where its size proved a disadvantage. Xerxes withdrew, leaving his general
Mardonius to continue the campaign; in 479 BC, Greek land forces decisively defeated the Persians at
Plataea.
Athenian hegemony To prosecute the war and then to defend Greece from further Persian attacks, Athens founded the
Delian League in 477 BC. Initially, each city in the League would contribute ships and soldiers to a common army, but in time Athens allowed (and then compelled) the smaller cities to contribute funds so that it could supply their quota of ships. Secession from the League could be punished. Following military reversals against the Persians, the treasury was moved from
Delos to Athens, further strengthening the latter's control over the League. The Delian League was eventually referred to pejoratively as the Athenian Empire. In 458 BC, while the Persian Wars were still ongoing, war broke out between the Delian League and the
Peloponnesian League, comprising
Sparta and its allies. After some inconclusive fighting, the two sides signed a peace treaty in 447 BC. That peace was stipulated to last thirty years: instead, it held only until 431 BC, with the onset of the
Peloponnesian War.
Peloponnesian War The main sources concerning the Peloponnesian war (431404 BC) are
Thucydides's
History of the Peloponnesian War and
Xenophon's
Hellenica. Both historians were also Athenian generals who lived through the war. The war began in 431 BC over a dispute between the cities of
Corcyra and
Epidamnus.
Corinth, an ally of
Sparta in the
Peloponnesian League, intervened on the Epidamnian side. Fearful that Corinth would capture the Corcyran navy (second only to the Athenian in size), Athens intervened. They prevented Corinth from landing on Corcyra at the
Battle of Sybota, laid siege to
Potidaea, and forbade all commerce with Corinth's closely situated ally,
Megara, with the
Megarian decree. There was disagreement among the Greeks as to which party violated the treaty between the
Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues, as Athens was technically defending a new ally. The Corinthians turned to Sparta for aid. Fearing the growing might of Athens and witnessing Athens' willingness to use it against the Megarians (the embargo would have ruined them), Sparta declared the treaty violated, and the Peloponnesian War began in earnest. The first stage of the war (known as the
Archidamian War for the Spartan king
Archidamus II) lasted until 421 BC with the signing of the
Peace of Nicias. It began with the Athenian general
Pericles recommending that his city fight a defensive war, avoiding battle against the superior land forces led by Sparta, and importing everything needful by maintaining its powerful navy. Athens would simply outlast Sparta, whose citizens feared leave their city for long lest the
helots, a subjugated population of Sparta, revolt. This strategy required that Athens endure regular
sieges, and in 430 BC it was visited with an devastating
plague that killed about a quarter of its people, including Pericles. With Pericles gone, less conservative elements gained power in the city and Athens went on the offensive. In 425 BC, it captured 300–400 Spartan
hoplites (soldiers) at the
Battle of Pylos, a significant fraction of the Spartan fighting force which it could not afford to lose. Meanwhile, Athens suffered humiliating defeats at
Delium in 424 BC and
Amphipolis in 422. The Peace of Nicias in 421 concluded the first stage of the war, with Sparta recovering its hoplites and Athens recovering the city of
Amphipolis. ("Athenian Empire or Alliance") in 431 BC, just prior to the
Peloponnesian War.Those who signed the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC swore to uphold it for fifty years, but peace lasted only seven years. The second stage of the Peloponnesian War began in 415 BC when Athens embarked on the
Sicilian Expedition in
Magna Graecia to support its ally
Segesta in
Sicily against an attack by
Syracuse (a Spartan ally also in Sicily) and conquer the island. Initially, Sparta was reluctant to help Syracuse, but
Alcibiades, the Athenian general who had argued for the Sicilian Expedition, defected to the Spartan cause after being accused of grossly impious acts. Alcibiades convinced the Spartans that they could not allow Athens to subjugate Syracuse. The campaign ended in disaster for the Athenians. After the Athenian defeat in Sicily, Athens'
Ionian possessions rebelled with the support of Sparta, as advised by Alcibiades. In 411 BC, an
oligarchical revolt in Athens held out the chance for peace, but the Athenian navy, which remained committed to the democracy, refused to accept the change and continued fighting in Athens' name. The navy recalled Alcibiades, who had been forced to abandon the Spartan cause after reputedly seducing the wife of
Agis II, a Spartan king, and made him its head. The oligarchy in Athens collapsed and Alcibiades reconquered what had been lost for Athens. In 407 BC, Alcibiades was replaced following a minor naval defeat at the
Battle of Notium. The Spartan general
Lysander, having fortified his city's naval power, began winning victory after victory. Athens won the
Battle of Arginusae in 406 BC but was prevented by bad weather from rescuing many of its sailors, leading the city to execute or exile eight of its top naval commanders. Lysander followed with a crushing blow at the
Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC which almost destroyed the Athenian fleet.
Spartan hegemony Athens surrendered one year later, ending the Peloponnesian War and beginning a brief of period of
Spartan hegemony in Greece. The war left devastation in its wake. Discontent with Spartan hegemony from both Athenian and former Spartan allies led to the
Corinthian War of 395–387 BC. Backed by the
Achaemenid Persian Empire, Athens,
Thebes, Corinth, and
Argos significantly weakened Spartan military power, though unsuccessful in ending Spartan dominance. The war concluded with the
Treaty of Antalcidas in 387 BC, in which Sparta was forced to cede
Ionia and
Cyprus to the
Persian Empire.
Theban hegemony The Corinthian War and its aftermath further sowed the seeds of discontent in Spartan Greece, inducing the Thebans to attack once more. Their general,
Epaminondas, crushed Sparta at the
Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, inaugurating a period of Theban dominance in Greece.
Philip II of Macedon In 346 BC, unable to prevail in its
ten-year war with
Phocis, Thebes called upon
Philip II of Macedon for aid.
Macedon quickly unified the Greek city-states under Macedonian hegemony into the
League of Corinth in 338337 BC.
Alexander the Great In 336 BC, power was transferred to Philip's heir
Alexander the Great, who spent the next ten years conquering the Persian Empire and much of Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of 30, Alexander had created one of the
largest empires in history, stretching from
Greece to northwestern
India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the
Macedonian Empire disintegrated under
widespread civil wars, beginning the Hellenistic Age of Greek history.
Hellenistic Greece The Hellenistic period of Greek history begins with the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ends with the
conquest of the Greek peninsula and islands by
Rome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of
Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence. During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centres of Hellenistic culture were
Alexandria and
Antioch, capitals of
Ptolemaic Egypt and
Seleucid Syria, respectively. (See
Hellenistic civilization for the history of Greek culture outside Greece in this period.)
Athens and her allies revolted against
Macedon upon hearing that Alexander the Great had died in 323 BC, but were defeated within a year in the
Lamian War. Meanwhile, a struggle for power broke out among Alexander's generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire and the establishment of a number of new kingdoms in the
Wars of the Diadochi.
Ptolemy was left with
Egypt, and
Seleucus with the
Levant,
Mesopotamia, and points east. Control of Greece,
Thrace, and
Anatolia was contested, but by 298 BC the
Antigonid dynasty had supplanted the
Antipatrid.
Pyrrhus of Epirus became king of
Epirus in 297 BC with the support of
Ptolemy I Soter. He co-ruled
Macedon together with Lysimachus after driving out
Demetrius in 288 BC. During the eponymous
Pyrrhic War of 280–275 BC, Pyrrhus fought Rome at the behest of
Tarentum, scoring costly victories at
Heraclea and
Asculum. Pyrrhus seized the Macedonian throne from
Antigonus II Gonatas in 274 BC but was killed during a
street battle at Argos. at the
Archaeological Museum of Pella (3rd century BC)
Antigonid control of the city-states was intermittent, with a number of revolts. Athens,
Rhodes,
Pergamum, and
Aetolian League joined Rome against Macedon in the
Macedonian Wars. The
Achaean League, first allied to
Ptolemies, was in effect independent and controlled most of Peloponnese. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league. realms included the
Diadoch kingdoms: Also shown on the map: The orange areas were often in dispute after 281 BC. The
Attalid kingdom occupied some of this area. Not shown:
Indo-Greek Kingdom. In 267 BC,
Ptolemy II persuaded Athens and Sparta to revolt against Macedon in what became the
Chremonidean War, named after the Athenian leader
Chremonides. They were defeated and Athens lost her independence and democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest, and most cultivated city in Greece. Macedon defeated the
Ptolemaic fleet at
Cos and brought the
Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as well.
Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC it invaded
Achaea and seized control of the League. The remaining Achaeans preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta and allied with the former. In 222 BC, the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans at the battle of Selassia.
Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes, and Pergamum. In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy
Carthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in
Asia Minor. The
First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. In 202 BC, Rome defeated Carthage and was free to turn her attention eastwards. In 198 BC, the
Second Macedonian War broke out because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the
Seleucid Empire, the greatest power in the East. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him, and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the
Battle of Cynoscephalae by the Roman
proconsul Titus Quinctius Flaminius. Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but he was otherwise spared. At the
Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flaminius declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth and
Chalcis. But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were favored and actively promoted. ==Roman Greece (146 BC – AD 324)==