Ancient Greece Greece is a country in southeastern Europe, known in Greek as Hellas or Ellada, and consisting of a mainland and an archipelago of islands. Greece is the birthplace of Western philosophy (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), literature (Homer and Hesiod), mathematics (Pythagoras and Euclid), history (Herodotus), drama (Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aristophanes), the Olympic Games, and democracy. The concept of an atomic universe was first posited in Greece through the work of Democritus and Leucippus. The process of today's scientific method was first introduced through the work of Thales of Miletus and those who followed him. The Latin alphabet also comes from Greece, having been introduced to the region by the Phoenicians in the 8th century BCE, and early work in physics and engineering was pioneered by Archimedes, of the Greek colony of Syracuse, among others. Mainland Greece is a large peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea (branching into the Ionian Sea in the west and the Aegean Sea in the east) which also comprises the islands known as the Cyclades and the Dodecanese (including Rhodes), the Ionian islands (including Corcyra), the isle of Crete, and the southern peninsula known as the Peloponnese. The geography of Greece greatly influenced the culture in that, with few natural resources and surrounded by water, the people eventually took to the sea for their livelihood. Mountains cover eighty percent of Greece and only small rivers run through a rocky landscape which, for the most part, provides little encouragement for agriculture.
Consequently, the early Greeks colonized neighboring islands and founded settlements along the coast of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor, modern day Turkey). The Greeks became skilled seafaring people and traders who, possessing an abundance of raw materials for construction in stone, and great skill, built some of the most impressive structures in antiquity.
etymoloGy of HellAs The designation Hellas derives from Hellen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha who features prominently in Ovid's tale of the Great Flood in his Metamorphoses. The mythical Deucalion (son of the fire-bringing titan Prometheus) was the savior of the human race from the Great Flood, in the same way, Noah is presented in the biblical version or Utnapishtim in the Mesopotamian one. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulate the land once the flood waters have receded by casting stones which become people, the first being Hellen. Contrary to popular opinion, Hellas and Ellada have nothing to do with Helen of Troy from Homer's Iliad. Ovid, however, did not coin the designation. Thucydides writes, in Book I of his Histories: I am inclined to think that the very name was not as yet given to the whole country, and in fact did not exist at all before the time of Hellen, the son of Deucalion; the different tribes, of which the Pelasgian was the most widely spread, gave their own names to different districts. But when Hellen and his sons became powerful in Phthiotis, their aid was invoked by other cities, and those who associated with them gradually began to be called Hellenes, though a long time elapsed before the name was prevalent over the whole country.
Of this, Homer affords the best evidence; for him, although he lived long after the Trojan War, nowhere uses this name collectively, but confines it to the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes; when speaking of the entire host, he calls them Danäans, or Argives, or Achaeans
eArly History of Greece Greek history is most easily understood by dividing it into time periods. The region was already settled, and agriculture initiated, during the Paleolithic era as evidenced by finds at Petralona and Franchthi caves (two of the oldest human habitations in the world). The Neolithic Age (c. 6000 - c. 2900 BCE) is characterized by permanent settlements (primarily in northern Greece), domestication of animals, and the further development of agriculture. Archaeological finds in northern Greece (Thessaly, Macedonia, and Sesklo, among others) suggest a migration from Anatolia in that the ceramic cups and bowls and figures found there share qualities distinctive to Neolithic finds in Anatolia. These inland settlers were primarily farmers, as northern Greece was more conducive to agriculture than elsewhere in the region, and lived in one-room stone houses with a roof of timber and clay daubing. The Cycladic Civilization (c. 3200-1100 BCE) flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea (including Delos, Naxos and Paros) and provides the earliest evidence of continual human habitation in that region. During the Cycladic Period, houses and temples were built of finished stone and the people made their living through fishing and trade. This period is usually divided into three phases:
Early Cycladic, Middle Cycladic, and Late Cycladic with a steady development in art and architecture. The latter two phases overlap and finally merge with the Minoan Civilization, and differences between the periods become indistinguishable.
The Minoan Civilization (2700-1500 BCE) developed on the island of Crete, and rapidly became the dominant sea power in the region. The term `Minoan' was coined by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans, who uncovered the Minoan palace of Knossos in 1900 CE and named the culture of the ancient Cretan king Minos. The name by which the people knew themselves is not known. The Minoan Civilization was thriving, as the Cycladic Civilization seems to have been, long before the accepted modern dates which mark its existence and probably earlier than 6000 BCE The Minoans developed a writing system known as Linear A (which has not yet been deciphered) and made advances in shipbuilding, construction, ceramics, the arts and sciences, and warfare. King Minos was credited by ancient historians (Thucydides among them) as being the first person to establish a navy with which he colonized, or conquered, the Cyclades. Archaeological and geological evidence on Crete suggests this civilization fell due to an overuse of the land causing deforestation though, traditionally, it is accepted that they were conquered by the Mycenaeans The eruption of the volcano on the nearby island of Thera (modern day Santorini) between 1650 and 1550 BCE, and the resulting tsunami, is acknowledged as the final cause for the fall of the Minoans. The isle of Crete was deluged and the cities and villages destroyed. This event has been frequently cited as Plato's inspiration in creating his myth of Atlantis in his dialogues of the Critias and Timaeus.
tHe mycenAeAns & tHeir Gods The Mycenaean Civilization (approximately 1900-1100 BCE) is commonly acknowledged as the beginning of Greek culture, even though we know almost nothing about the Mycenaeans save what can be determined through archaeological finds and through Homer’s account of their war with Troy as recorded in The Iliad. They are credited with establishing the culture owing primarily to their architectural advances, their development of a writing system (known as Linear B, an early form of Greek descended from the Minoan Linear A), and the establishment, or enhancement of, religious rites. The Mycenaeans appear to have been greatly influenced by the Minoans of Crete in their worship of earth goddesses and sky gods, which, in time, become the classical pantheon of ancient Greece. The gods and goddesses provided the Greeks with a solid paradigm of the creation of the universe, the world, and human beings. An early myth relates how, in the beginning, there was nothing but chaos in the form of unending waters. From this chaos came the goddess Eurynome who separated the water from the air and began her dance of creation with the serpent Ophion. From their dance, all of creation sprang and Eurynome was, originally, the Great Mother Goddess and Creator of All Things. By the time Hesiod and Homer were writing (8th century BCE), this story had changed into the more familiar myth concerning the Titans, Zeus' war against them, and the birth of the Olympian Gods with Zeus as their chief. This shift indicates a movement from a matriarchal religion to a patriarchal paradigm.
Whichever model was followed, however, the gods clearly interacted regularly with the humans who worshipped them and were a large part of daily life in ancient Greece. Prior to the coming of the Romans, the only road in mainland Greece that was not a cow path was the Sacred Way which ran between the city of Athens and the holy city of Eleusis, birthplace of the Eleusinian Mysteries celebrating the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. By 1100 BCE the great Mycenaean cities of southwest Greece were abandoned and, some claim, their civilization destroyed by an invasion of Doric Greeks. Archaeological evidence is inconclusive as to what led to the fall of the Mycenaeans. As no written records of this period survive (or have yet to be unearthed) one may only speculate on causes. The tablets of Linear B script found thus far contain only lists of goods bartered in a trade or kept in stock. No history of the time has yet emerged. It seems clear, however, that after what is known as the Greek Dark Ages (approximately 1100-800 BCE, so named because of the absence of written documentation) the Greeks further colonized much of Asia Minor, and the islands surrounding mainland Greece and began to make significant cultural advances Beginning in c. 585 BCE the first Greek philosopher, Thales, was engaged in what, today, would be recognized as scientific inquiry in the settlement of Miletus on the Asia Minor coast and this region of Ionian colonies would make significant breakthroughs in the fields of philosophy and mathematics
from tHe ArcHAic to tHe clAssicAl Periods The Archaic Period (800-500 BCE) is characterized by the introduction of Republics instead of Monarchies (which, in Athens, moved toward Democratic rule)
organised as a single city-state or polis, the institution of laws (Draco’s reforms in Athens), the great Panathenaic Festival was established, distinctive Greek pottery and Greek sculpture were born, and the first coins minted on the island kingdom of Aegina. This, then, set the stage for the flourishing of the Classical Period of Greece given as 500-400 BCE or, more precisely, as 480-323 BCE, from the Greek victory at Salamis to the death of Alexander the Great. This was the Golden Age of Athens when Pericles initiated the building of the Acropolis and spoke his famous eulogy for the men who died defending Greece at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Greece reached the heights in almost every area of human learning during this time and the great thinkers and artists of antiquity (Phidias, Plato, Aristophanes, to mention only three) flourished. Leonidas and his 300 Spartans fell at Thermopylae and, the same year (480 BCE), Themistocles won victory over the superior Persian naval fleet at Salamis leading to the final defeat of the Persians at Plataea in 379 BCE. Democracy (literally Demos = people and Kratos = power, so the power of the people) was established in Athens allowing all male citizens over the age of twenty a voice in government. The Pre-Socratic philosophers, following Thales' lead, initiated what would become the scientific method in exploring natural phenomena. Men like Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Democritus, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus abandoned the theistic model of the universe and strove to uncover the underlying, first cause of life and the universe. Their successors, among whom were Euclid and Archimedes, continued philosophical inquiry and further established mathematics as a serious discipline.
The example of Socrates and the writings of Plato and Aristotle after him have influenced western culture and society for over two thousand years. This period also saw advances in architecture and art with a movement away from the ideal to the realistic. Famous works of Greek sculpture such as the Parthenon Marbles and Discobolos (the discus thrower) date from this time and epitomize the artist's interest in depicting human emotion, beauty, and accomplishment realistically, even if those qualities are presented in works featuring immortals. All of these developments in culture were made possible by the ascent of Athens following her victory over the Persians in 480 BCE. The peace and prosperity which followed the Persian defeat provided the finances and stability of culture to flourish. Athens became the superpower of her day and, with the most powerful navy, was able to demand tribute from other citystates and enforce her wishes. Athens formed the Delian League, a defensive alliance whose stated purpose was to deter the Persians from further hostilities. The city-state of Sparta, however, doubted the Athenian sincerity and formed their own association for protection against their enemies, the Peloponnesian League (so named for the Peloponnesus region where Sparta and the others were located). The city-states which sided with Sparta increasingly perceived Athens as a bully and a tyrant, while those cities which sided with Athens viewed Sparta and her allies with growing distrust.
The tension between these two parties eventually erupted in what has become known as the Peloponnesian Wars. The first conflict (c. 460-445 BCE) ended in a truce and continued prosperity for both parties while the second (431404 BCE) left Athens in ruins and Sparta, the victor, bankrupt after her protracted war with Thebes. This time is generally referred to as the Late Classical Period (c. 400-330 BCE). The power vacuum left by the fall of these two cities was filled by Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BCE) after his victory over the Athenian forces and their allies at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE. Philip united the Greek city-states under Macedonian rule and, upon his assassination in 336 BCE, his son Alexander assumed the throne. Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) carried on his father's plans for a full-scale invasion of Persia in retaliation for their invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. As he had almost the whole of Greece under his command, a standing army of considerable size and strength, and a full treasury, Alexander did not need to bother with allies nor with consulting anyone regarding his plan for invasion and so led his army into Egypt, across Asia Minor, through Persia, and finally to India. Tutored in his youth by Plato’s great student Aristotle, Alexander would spread the ideals of Greek civilization through his conquests and, in so doing, transmitted Greek philosophy, culture, language, and art to every region he came in contact with. In 323 BCE Alexander died and his vast empire was divided between four of his generals. This initiated what has come to be known to historians
As the Hellenistic Age (323-31 BCE) during which Greek thought and culture became dominant in the various regions under these generals' influence. After a series of struggles between the Diodachi (`the successors' as Alexander's generals came to be known) General Antigonus established the Antigonid Dynasty in Greece which he then lost. It was regained by his grandson, Antigonus II Gonatus, by 276 BCE who ruled the country from his palace at Macedon. The Roman Republic became increasingly involved in the affairs of Greece during this time and, in 168 BCE, defeated Macedon at the Battle of Pydna. After this date, Greece steadily came under the influence of Rome. In 146 BCE the region was designated a Protectorate of Rome and Romans began to emulate Greek fashion, philosophy and, to a certain extent, sensibilities. In 31 BCE Octavian Caesar annexed the country as a province of Rome following his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Octavian became Augustus Caesar and Greece a part of the Roman Empire.
Greek city-stAtes - 1,100 Bce Philip of Macedon’s defeat of the Greek city-states is traditionally seen as drawing down the curtain on “Classical Greece” and ushering in the “Hellenistic Age“. This includes the conquests of Alexander the Great, and ends with the conquests of the different Hellenistic states by Rome (146-31 BC). The history of Ancient Greece falls into four major divisions. The Archaic period, when the civilization’s main features were evolving, lasted from the 8th to the 6th centuries BC.
Classical Greece flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. This was marked by the period of the Persian Wars (c. 510-479 BC), the Golden Age of Athens (c. 479-404 BC), and the later Classical era (404-338 BC). Greek civilization had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire. Indeed, some modern scholars see the Roman era as a continuation of the same civilization, which they label “Graeco-Roman”. In any case, the Roman conquest carried many features of Greek civilization to far-flung parts of the Mediterranean world and Western Europe. Through the mediation of the Romans, therefore, Greek civilization came to be the founding culture of Western civilization
GeoGrAPHy of Ancient Greece The geographical coverage of Ancient Greek civilization changed markedly during its history. Its origins were in the land of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea, plus the west coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). This is a landscape of mountains and sea. Land used for farming is found in valley bottoms, hedged in by steep slopes, or on small islands, confined by water. As a result, ancient Greece consisted of many small territories, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on narrow coastal plains, and only dominated a limited area around them. These “city-states” were fiercely independent of each other From about 750 BC the Greeks began sending out colonies in all directions, settling the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
By around 600 BC Greek city-states could be found, “like frogs around a pond”, as one Greek writer put it, from the coasts of Spain in the west to Cyprus in the east, and as far north as present-day Ukraine and Russia and as far south as the Egypt and Libya. Sicily and Southern Italy above all became a major locus for Greek colonization, and this region was known to the Romans as “Magna Graecia”. Later, the conquests of Alexander the Great took Greek civilization right across the Middle East. There it mingled with the more ancient cultures of that region to form a hybrid civilization which scholars label “Hellenistic” civilization. This is described in a separate article; here we shall focus on the original Greek civilization.
Ancient Greek society The ancient Greeks certainly thought of themselves as ‘one people’ – they had the same religion, language, and culture. Every four years all Greek city-states sent their young men and women to compete in the Olympic Games. Politically, however, Ancient Greece was divided amongst several hundred independent city-states (poleis). These city-states fiercely defended their independence from one another. Political unity was not an option unless imposed from outside (which first occurred when Philip II, king of Macedonia, conquered the city-states of Greece in the mid4th century BC.)
tHe city-stAte A typical Greek city was built around a fortified hill, called an “Acropolis”. Here was located the city’s chief temple, the city’s treasury, and some other public buildings. At the center of the city was the “Agora” – the central space where public meetings were held, and where traders set up their stalls. The agora was often flanked by colonnades. Most industrial production took place in small workshops. Family members plus some slaves would make up the workforce in most of these. However, one workshop in Athens for manufacturing shields was said to have 120 workers, mostly slaves. Different trades were concentrated in different parts of the city, but mostly near the Agora,
the main trading center in the city. Potters, blacksmiths, bronze workers, carpenters, leather workers, cobblers, and other craft workshops would all have their own streets or (in large cities) districts. As a city outgrew its local water supply, water was brought in from neighboring hills by means of channels cut in the rocks, and clay pipes. These fed fountains, from which the poorer people could collect water; and also private wells situated in the larger housesThe city was surrounded by high, wide walls. In later times these were made of stone, brick, and rubble. Towers were built at regular interval, and fortified gateways pierced the walls to allow roads to pass through. Outside these wall was another public space, the gymnasium. This is where athletes trained; covered porticoes allowed training to continue in bad weather, and also provided shaded areas for activities such as music, discussion, and social meetings. Many gymnasia had public baths attached. Also outside the walls would be the theatre, built into a hillside and semicircular in shape. The audience would sit on the tiered seats looking down on to a space called the “orchestra�, where the performances took place. This space would be backed by columns and behind them, small buildings where actors changed clothing and masks, and for the props. Surrounding the city was the farmland of the city-state. Many of the citizens lived within the city walls and walked out to their fields each day to work. Those whose land was further away, however, lived in the countryside, in the hamlets and villages which dotted the landscape, and walked into the city for special occasions. They were as many citizens of the city-state as those who actually lived in the city itself.
In many cases this farmland only stretched for a few miles before sloping upwards to the hills and mountains which
divided one city-state from the next. Here, with the land less suitable for growing crops, grain fields and olive groves gave way to pasturage for sheep and goats. Many Greek city-states were situated on the coast, or on a small island. The city itself would often be located some distance inland, centered on a hill where the acropolis was built for defense.
On the seashore would be a harbor, consisting of wooden quays for loading and unloading ships, and beaches were the ships could be drawn up onto dry land for repair. In many cases, there would also be ship-sheds, where the city’s war galleys were housed when not in use
AGriculture Like all pre-modern societies, the Greeks were primarily an agricultural people. They practiced the agriculture of the ancient Mediterranean region. involving the cultivation of grains, vines and olives, and the keeping of sheep, goat and cattle. Farms were very small – mere plots of land of a few acres. Aristocrats and other landowners would own larger farms, worked by slaves; but an estate of 100 acres was considered large. The main challenge facing Greek farmers was that there was too little good farming land in Greece and the Aegean. This forced them to take to sea-borne trade on a scale unmatched by most other ancient peoples. However, land shortages continued to be a problem throughout the ancient times. They were a source of the social tensions between rich and poor which led, in Athens, to the rise of democracy, and in several other cities, to violent clashes between the different classes. trAde
Very many Greek city-states were located by the sea. Also, many of them, confined as they were by steep hills and mountains, or by the sea itself (if they were on islands), suffered from a shortage of agricultural land. From an early stage in their history, therefore, many Greeks looked to the sea for their livelihood. For a period of about 150 years after 750 BC, many city-states sent out groups of their citizens to found colonies on distant shores of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
These established strong trading ties with their mother city. Greek traders soon dominated maritime trade of the Mediterranean, edging out the Phoenicians who had preceded them. The adoption of metal coinage must have facilitated this process. Some Greek cities became large and wealthy trading centres. Athens, the largest Greek city-state of all, was only able to feed her large population through trade. The poor soil of Attica (the area of Greece where Athens was located) was ideal for growing olives on, and so from an early date the Athenians concentrated on growing olives for export They imported almost all their grain from other states. The Athenians built up a large merchant fleet, and their city became the leading commercial center of Greece. At the height of its glory, almost a third of its population may have been made up of “alien� businessmen and their households, mostly Greeks from other cities. The wealth that this commerce brought Athens enabled it to become the leading city of Greece, both in politics and culture. Athens also became the major banker to the Greek world. In the fifth century BC the Athenian coinage became the international currency of the Mediterranean. Bankers operated from long tables set up in the agora, making loans at very high rates of interest.
society The social framework varied significantly from city-state to city-state. Most cities, however, had a large class of free, native-born peasant farmers. These owned small farms to subsist on. They had a real say in how their city was run and what decisions were made.
The adult males formed the citizen body of the state. They were entitled to vote in elections, participate in trials in the law courts, and hold public office; They also had a duty to fight in the city’s army. Within this group of citizens was a smaller number of wealthier families, who owned more land than the rest. They were the aristocrats. As they could afford to keep horses, they were distinguished from the bulk of the citizens by fighting in the army of horseback. Their older men were often the leading office-holders in the city, the magistrates and military commanders; they could often trace their families back through generations of office-holders, who had helped shape the city’s history They had a disproportionate influence on affairs of state. Indeed, in many city-states, they formed an aristocratic council who played a leading role in the direction of the state. In those city-states which were democracies, however, it was the bulk of the citizens who held the power, through their assembly At the bottom of society was a large class of slaves – modern scholars estimate that in some city-states such as Athens they may have made up almost half the population These were people who had been captured in war, or been condemned to slavery as a result of debts which they could not pay; or for crimes. Since the children of slaves were also slaves, many had been born into slavery. In law, they were the property of their owners. They worked as household servants or farm laborers for the wealthy, or miners and industrial workers for businessmen. Trained slaves could act as skilled craftsmen, or perhaps secretaries
As the Greek cities grew in size and wealth, their societies became more complex. New classes appeared, of prosperous craftsmen, sailors and traders, to stand alongside the older classes of aristocrats, peasants and slaves. These new groups became the natural opponents of the aristocrats, and their influence in politics helped undermine aristocratic power. It is no coincidence that those cities with the largest commercial sectors moved furthest along the road to democracy. Most city-states also had numbers of “aliens� living within their walls. These were free men and women who had homes in the city, but had been born elsewhere (or their parents and grandparents had), usually in another Greek city-state. They were often merchants or craftsmen. They were not enrolled amongst the citizens and did not have their privileges; they were deemed to have the citizenship of the city they or their families had originally come from. In most cities, citizenship was jealously guarded by a hereditary group of native families tHe fAmily
As in many pre-modern societies, unwanted children were exposed in the countryside to die. Sons were preferred over daughters, so it was baby girls who tended to suffer this fate. Exposure was not illegal, though once the baby was more than 10 days old it was fully protected by law. Exposed babies were often rescued and brought up as slaves Babies in wealthy families were usually breastfed by a household slave. Older children had toys to play with, as in all societies: rattles and balls were popular, as were dolls
Boys from wealthier families went to school (see the section on education, below), and some girls were also educated. Poorer boys would be trained in a craft, on the job. This often involved picking up the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Women lived very sheltered lives, first under the authority of their father or another male relative, and then under that of their husband. Marriages were arranged by the parents. The man was very much the dominant partner in a marriage (at least in law). The role of the woman was to cook, weave, raise her children. In poorer families, a woman might also help her husband in his work, especially if he worked on a farm (which the majority of men did); or she herself might keep a market stall or do some other kind of work Divorce was easy for men – they could divorce their wives without justification – and almost impossible for women.
Houses The majority of the poor lived in what we would regard as squalid rural hovels, or crowded urban slums crowded together in narrow, filthy lanes. In a large city like Athens, some of the poor lived in multistory blocks of apartments. Larger houses were constructed around a courtyard, with rooms leading off. Some of these were quite modest, for well-to-do craftsmen or farmers; some were large and luxurious, with accommodation for a large household including many slaves. These houses were of two stories and were equipped with bathrooms and toilets.
The walls of the reception rooms and family quarters were painted with large, colorful scenes.
clotHinG Men wore tunics, over which a large piece of cloth could be draped. Women wore long tunics falling to their ankles, and they too could drape large pieces of cloth over themselves. These tunics and cloaks were mostly made of wool. Children’s clothing consisted of short tunics. Leather sandals were worn on the feet Young men tended to be clean shaven, with hair cropped short. Older men often wore beards. Women grew their hair long, then tied it into a bun or ponytail with ribbons.
Government And Politics The English word “politics” comes from the Greek word for city-state, “polis”. For the Greeks, the city-state was essentially a community of citizens making decisions together about matters of communal concern. This is why the Greeks never referred to the name of a city – “Athens”, for example – but always to its citizens – “the Athenians Citizens were the free members of the community who had been born to native families (those who had lived in the citystate for generations). From the earliest days of the city-states, the adult male citizens would regularly meet together in public assembly to decide matters of importance for the state. This was made possible by the fact that most city-states would have no more than a few thousand such citizens. In contrast to political developments in Mesopotamian citystates, more than two thousand years before, kings early on lost most of their power in Greek city-state, and in many cases vanished altogether.
From that time onwards these city-states were republics rather than kingdoms In all the states, a small group of aristocrats initially had a controlling position. They formed a small council of men who frequently met to discuss public matters in depth – something that a large assembly of several thousand citizens could not do.
democrAcy Many citizens’ assembly gained more and more power, however, and in the fifth century BC many states were fullblown democracies(the word “democracy” is based on the Greek word for common people, “demos”.) Athens was by far the largest and most famous of these democracies, and we know a great deal about how Athenian democracy worked. The citizens not only met in a full assembly but chose (by lot) some of their members to form a much smaller council, which discussed public matters more fully before laying them before the full assembly. Public officials were also chosen by lot (except military commanders, who were elected). All citizens were liable to be selected for public office or membership of the governing council, and would serve for a year. In this way, office-holding was constantly rotating, and the majority of citizens gained some direct experience of government
PuBlic finAnces And AdministrAtion Taxation seems not to have been highly developed by the Greeks. Taxes were levied in times of emergency; otherwise, government was supported financially duties on goods being bought and sold, or on property In fact, Greek government was not expensive by later standards. There was no bureaucracy to speak of. Some cities kept public slaves for various tasks (rudimentary police force, or a small corps of public scribes, for example), but their numbers were very small. Public officials and soldiers were largely unpaid, serving their cities voluntarily (Athens was an exception, paying citizens for undertaking public duties; but it was an exceptionally wealthy city). Moreover, the wealthy were expected not only to serve as magistrates or generals, but to contribute funds from their own pockets for the upkeep of warships, theatres and other public assets
lAw We know surprisingly little about Greek law. No law codes have survived, except in small fragments. Each polis had its own law code. We know most about the legal system of Athens, as in most things. Here, there were many courts, each trying different kinds of case. Very serious crimes against the state came before the entire assembly of citizens. Capital punishment was inflicted for blasphemy, treason and murder The method differing for each crime but including beheading, poisoning and stoning. For other serious crimes, including manslaughter, exile was a common punishment.
For lesser crimes, fines or confiscation of property were used In all courts, cases were tried by large juries of citizens, selected by lot, and presided over by a magistrate. Any citizen could bring charges against another. – but to limit the bringing of false accusations any accuser who failed to convince a fifth of the jurors was heavily fined. The accuser put his case, and the accused then defended himself. The jurors cast their vote as they left court by each dropping a pebble into a jar for guilty or for innocent. A board of eleven magistrates was responsible, with the help of a body of slaves, for maintaining law and order, arresting wrong-doers and supervising prisons
internAtionAl Politic As time went by, most city-states of Greece did in fact give up a measure of their much-prized independence to form alliances with one another, against joint enemies. They did this often voluntarily, but sometimes under coercion. The most famous of these alliances were the Delian League and the Peloponesian League, led by Athens and Sparta respectively. The Delian League originated as a defensive alliance against the Persian threat, being founded in the early fifth century. However, as time went by, Athens became more and more dominant, treating the other league cities more as subjects than as equals. This behavior eventually helped lead to the downfall of the League (click here for more in this period of Athenian history). The Peloponnesian league was founded much earlier than the Delian, in the 7th century BC, and endured much longer. Its chief city, Sparta, had achieved its position of leadership largely through military means; however, the League served the interests of the other cities by offering them effective protection from non-League enemies.
Also, Sparta made sure that League cities were under aristocratic regimes which tended to be in favor of Spartan values (click here for more on Sparta and the Peloponnesian League and its later leading role in Greece.
wArfAre The city-states relied on their own citizens to fight in their armies. Each citizen had to have his own armor and weapons and spend a certain amount of time undergoing military training. The fact that the Greek world was fragmented into hundreds of small city-states, with only a few thousand citizens each, meant that wars, though frequent, were limited the scale. The duration of campaigns was determined by the need for most of the citizens to return to their farms for harvest time. Campaigns would therefore often be restricted to summer Battles were fought between large formations of foot soldiers, fighting at close quarters: the majority of the casualties in a set-piece battle would obviously occur at the front of the two formations; if one of the sides turned and ran (a not infrequent occurrence) the all were in danger. Cavalry played a comparatively minor role in Greek warfare. A hoplite, or heavy-armed infantry soldier, was armed with a spear, large shield, and helmet. Swords might also be carried but as a secondary weapon. Better-off hoplites would have in addition a bronze breastplate and greaves. These would tend to fight in the front line, the place of most honor. The scale of Greek warfare increased somewhat in the 6th century BC, when groups of city-states formed alliances. The most famous of these was the Peloponnesian League, under the leadership of Sparta.
During the Persian Wars, the Delian League emerged, under the leadership of Athens. These and other leagues (the Achaean, the Aetolian) increased the scale of Greek warfare further in the 5th and 4th centuries. Large armies were fielded, forces were deployed further from their homes, and campaigns grew longer. Naval warfare became more important, with several citystates maintaining large fleets of galleys (the rowers of these galleys were usually the poorest of the citizens, who could not afford to pay for their own armor). Blockades and sieges became common
reliGion The Greeks worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses, headed by the chief of the gods, Zeus. Other gods included Hera, Zeus’s wife; Athena, goddess of wisdom and learning; Apollo, god of music and culture; Aphrodite, goddess of love; Dionysus, god of wine; Hades, god of the underworld; and Diana, goddess of the hunt. Greek religion placed little emphasis on ethical conduct – stories about the gods portrayed often them as lying, cheating, being unfaithful, getting drunk and so on. As in many traditional religions, a Greek god or goddess was seen more as a potential source of help, rather than as a focus of devotion Each city-state had its own festivals, but certain festivals were common to all the Greeks. The most famous of these were the Olympic games, held in honor of Zeus every four years (starting traditionally in 776 BC). There were much fewer events than in a modern Olympics, and there were competitions in music and poetry as well as in athletics. The winner of an Olympic event was awarded an olive wreath and won great honor in his home city.
The Greeks often consulted oracles – priests or priestesses at certain shrines who, in a trance, uttered messages from the gods. People would go to oracles for advice and guidance on specific matters. The most famous of these was the oracle at the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. The advice was sought by private individuals as well as by politicians and military commanders. The Greek religion was not something to engage a person’s spirituality, and various cults grew up to fell that void. The Eleusinian Mysteries and the cult of Orpheus injected emotional elements into worship. One joined these through initiation, and their beliefs were secret. Hence we know little about them. However, they stressed the importance of the afterlife – initiates were promised immortality – and the need for ethical standards of behavior was emphasized Numerous myths have come down to us about the Greeks gods, goddesses and semi-divine heroes. They also have much to say about the origins and nature of the world. Many of these myths contradict one another, something that the Greeks found no problem with
educAtion Most Greek cities did not have publicly-funded schools – Sparta was the exception. Education was therefore a private affair. Wealthy families would put a boy under the care of a slave who would accompany him everywhere. The boy (and the accompanying slave) would attend a small school run by a private teacher, who would have a few pupils in his charge. Here, the boy would learn to read and write, and do arithmetic. Later, they learned to sing and play music (which for the Greeks included poetry).
After the age of 12 boys focussed on physical education. They trained in such sports as the throwing the discus and javelin, running and wrestling. Some wealthy families would also have their girls educated. They would be taught to read, write, and play music; and they were also given also some physical education. After school, older boys underwent military training. The family bought armor and weapons for them, and the young men learned how to fight effectively in military camps. From this age they were expected to serve in the state’s army if needed. For boys from wealthy families, training in public speaking would round off their education. In Athens, some of the first higher education institutions recorded in history were founded: Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum. Here, courses involving logic, literature and philosophy were taught Meanwhile, girls from wealthy families were trained in managing the household. This would have involved accountkeeping, as well as more domestic tasks such as weaving. In fact, how educated a young woman actually became would have depended entirely on her family, and of course her own motivation
culture literAture Even while the Greeks were emerging from their Dark Ages after the fall of Mycenae (c. 1200-750 BC), when they produced their greatest poet, Homer. Most modern scholars think that Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were composed around 750 BC. It was almost certainly first composed in oral form before being written perhaps a hundred years later. These poems have been studied by western scholars ever since.
Later poets included Hesiod (7th century BC), whose “Works and Days” portrays the tough life of an ordinary farmer; Sappho (6th century BC), whose love poetry uses beauty of language to explore intense personal feelings; and Pindar (late 6th century – early 5th century BC), who expressed emotion in lyrical poems praising famous athletes or gods, and mourning the dead. The Greeks were the first to pioneer the art form of drama. This had its origins in the dances and songs of sacred rites and was always associated with religious festivals. A chorus chanting words or singing songs replaced the dancers, and originally only one solo actor stood out from the rest. Actors wore different masks to depict various standard moods or characters. Greek drama included both tragedy and comedy. It reached maturity in 5th century Athens. Aeschylus (525-456 BC) reduced the importance of the chorus and increased the role of individual actors and dialogue. Sophocles (496-406 BC) took these innovations further, while Euripides (484-406 BC) used dialogue to portray deep human emotions. he Greeks also pioneered the writing of history as not merely the chronicling of events, but in striving for accuracy, objectivity and meaning in their accounts. Herodotus (c. 485-425 BC) is known the “father of history” (in the West), and was the first to develop a coherent historical narrative (in this case, of the Persian Wars); but it was his successor, Thucydides (c.460-396 BC), who was the one to first write what we today would call proper history.
Art And ArcHitecture Greek architecture is known for its grace and simplicity. The finest buildings the Greeks erected were their temples; and the most famous of these is th Parthenon, in Athens The centre of each temple was space known as the “cella”. Here was located the statue if the god. In front of the cella was the porch, and both porch and cells were surrounded by a colonnade of columns. Each column was topped by a “capitals”, a carved block of stone. On top of these rested the “entablature”, a band of carved stone on which, in turn, rested the roof. These elements went together to form a simple yet gracious building
sculPture And PAintinG Greek sculpture – usually in stone and bronze; sometimes in gold and ivory – was solid and formal, much like that of the ancient Middle East. In the period, sculptures strove for realism, and their work became more graceful and elegant. They applied mathematical ratios to achieve aesthetic beauty. As time went by, and their skills improved still more, they sought to represent movement and emotion. In their best works, they achieved a fluidity in stone which has seldom been matched In ancient times, statues would have been painted with vibrant, lifelike colours. Virtually no trace of this survives. The only paintings that have come down to us are on vases, where the images are of necessity simple and economic. We know of other painting as well from literary sources, for example on walls of palaces; and some painters achieved wide fame. However, none of their work has come down to us.
The earliest school of Greek philosophers were those of the Ionian tradition (7th-5th centuries BC). Ionia was in what is today western Turkey, and it is tempting to see the influence of the ancient Middle East on their work. Much of this involved quasi-religious speculations about the origins and structure of the universe: but this led them on to quasi-scientific propositions, such as that all matter comes from water (reminiscent of Mesopotamian beliefs). The Pythagoreans were another group of early Greek thinkers (6th-5th century BC). They formed a curious combination of philosophical school and religious brotherhood. They believed that all things could be explained by numbers. As a result, they did much mathematical speculation (see below, section on Science). However, they believed in such religious ideas as the transmigration of the soul. They lived simple, ascetic lives. By the 5th century, Greek thinkers such as Parmenedes (c.504-456 BC) were advocating the idea that reason is the best way to reaching truth The Sophists – “teachers of wisdom” – were traveling teachers prominent in the 5th century, after the Persian Wars. They preferred to study man and worldly problems rather than speculate about universal truths In fact, some claimed that truths were only meaningful when placed in a particular context, and seen from a particular point of view They rejected the notion of the supernatural and universal standards of morality and justice. Some went on the state that nothing really exists, the material world is just an illusion. Some taught that all the meaning there is in the universe resides in the words we use. Language is, therefore, a tool to give things meaning.
In due course sophists came to be associated with specious reasoning, using words to mean whatever one wants them to mean Greek philosophy reached its high point in the careers of three thinkers who lived and worked in Athens, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates (469-399 BC) challenged the thinking of his contemporaries by posing penetrating questions. In this way he aimed to strip away the prejudices we all bring to our thinking. He developed the “Socratic method�, based on questions and discussion, rather than on lectures and received teaching. He believed that reason and clear thinking could lead men to truth and happiness.
In 399 BC, he was put on trial in Athens for “corrupting the minds of the youth” and not revering the gods. He was executed by poisoning. Plato (427-347 BC) was a disciple of Socrates; it is through him we know of Socrates’ teaching. Plato believed that the material world is not real, but an imperfect image of the real, or ideal. He founded the “Academy”, the first known institute of higher education in the West. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a student of Plato’s. He spent some time as tutor to the future king of Macedon, who would become known to history as Alexander the Great. After this, he founded the Lyceum in Athens. Aristotle left behind a vast body of work. To help clear thinking, he developed a system of formal rules of logic. These became extremely influential in future Western thought. He believed ideas were indistinguishable from matter, in that they could exists only through material objects. He believed that God was the “first cause” of all things, and that the good life can be achieved through moderation
mAtHemAtics And science For the Greeks, science was indistinguishable from philosophy (in fact, science was called “natural philosophy” in the West right up to the 18th century). Thales of Miletus is usually regarded as the first prominent Greek mathematician, and he is credited with developing the methodologies of observation, experimentation, and deduction, which are still used today. Thales’ younger contemporaries, Pythagoras, and his school, developed geometry as a branch of knowledge. They uncovered Pythagoras’ theorem, that the sum of any three angles of a triangle is equal to two right angles.
One of the main concerns for Greek philosophers was the nature of the universe, and their thinking about this had theological dimensions – Heraclitus (533-475 BC), for example, believed that the universe pervaded by Logos, or divine will, and Xenophanes (540-485 BC) taught that was a supreme being, and attacked the idea of a pantheon of gods – and some was more along what we today would recognize as scientific lines Empedocles (495-430 BC) proposed that all matter was indestructible and eternal. He was the first to come up with the idea that matter exists in only four basic forms – earth, air, fire, and water. Different balances lead to different kinds of materials. Democritus (c.460-362) developed this idea and anticipated modern physics by proposing that all matter consists of minute and indivisible units called atoms. Anaximander (611-547 BC) asserted the theory of organic evolution, with the earliest animals being fish, which later adapted to different environments to become land animals and human beings In medicine, the Greeks dissected animals to refine their ideas on anatomy. They located the optic nerve and recognized the brain as the locus of thought. They discovered that blood flows to and from the heart. Hippocrates (c.460-377 BC) argued that diseases had natural rather than supernatural causes and that they, therefore, could be treated by natural means. He advocated rest, proper diet, and exercise for a healthy life; he knew the uses of many drugs, and he helped improve surgical practices. He is considered one of the key figures in the history of Western medicine. In astronomy, the first three-dimensional models to explain the apparent motion of the planets were developed in the 4th century BC.
Aristotle advanced the scientific method by his insistence on observation of the material world is an important root of knowledge. Together with his rules of logic (see the section above, Philosophy), this laid some important foundations for the scientific method in the West. He put this method into action himself by classified many plants and animals, so making a great contribution to botany and zoology. He developed Empedocles’ ideas on matter by adding a fifth element, either, to the other four
leGAcy of Ancient Greece The civilization of ancient Greece has been immensely influential on subsequent world history. The language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, and the arts of the ancient Greeks were crucial in laying the foundations of Western civilization. Through the Roman Empire, much Greek culture came to Western Europe. The Byzantine Empire inherited Classical Greek culture from the Hellenistic world, without Latin intermediation, and the preservation of classical Greek learning in medieval Byzantine tradition further exerted a strong influence on the Slavs and later on the Islamic civilization of the Golden Age. Through these channels, it came again to Western European in renewed force and was hugely instrumental in stimulating the Italian Renaissance. The art and architecture of ancient Greece have had an enormous impact on later cultures, from ancient times to the present day. This is particularly the case with sculpture and architecture. Roman art was largely a continuation of Greek – in fact, in many cases, it was actually executed by Greek artists. In the East,
Alexander the Great‘s conquests led to the rise of the hybrid Hellenistic civilization in which Greek and Asian styles mingled. The distinctive Persian art of the medieval period incorporated the plasticity of Greek art and solidity of Mesopotamian. The Gandhara style of northern India similarly embodied the artistic heritage of two quite different civilizations, ancient India and Greece, and had a large impact on the Buddhist art of northern India, central Asia and Eastern Asia In the West, following the Italian Renaissance (after c. 1400), the technical brilliance of Greek (and its offspring, Roman) art and architecture stimulated artists to look to these ancient models for inspiration. From that time until well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Greece and Rome was the dominant strand in Western civilization Ancient Greek mathematics contributed many important developments, including the basic rules of geometry, the idea of formal mathematical proof, and discoveries in number theory and applied mathematics. It is now increasingly recognized that Greek mathematics owed a great deal to Mesopotamia; however, the Greeks made many advances of their own. The discoveries of Greek mathematicians are foundational to modern mathematics. Greek science provided Islamic and medieval European thought with its world view. The Greeks came up with a huge range of rationally argued propositions about nature and the universe, which, even when dramatically wrong, provided hypotheses which modern Western thinkers have been able to test, often demolish, and in some cases corroborate
tHe first euroPeAn civilizAtions Agriculture reached the Aegean region from the Middle East between 6500 and 5500 BCE. By 3500 BCE small farming settlements were scattered throughout the Aegean coasts and islands. The largest, though still only with populations several hundred strong, were beginning to look like little towns. These communities were active in the trade routes that spread north into the Balkans and south-east Europe, and westward along the Mediterranean coast, their sailors probably travelling as far as Spain in their little boats. Such places as Troy, in present-day north-west Turkey, were already showing signs of urbanization in the third millennium BCE. By this period, these trade networks were feeding the Mesopotamian city-states with the tin and copper with which to make bronze weapons and decorations. From Mesopotamia came knowledge of bronze-making techniques and other skills with which the peoples of the Aegean enhanced their material culture. By the end of the third millennium, one of the most advanced societies of the time was emerging on the large island of Crete. This would become the brilliant Minoan civilization
tHe minoAn civilizAtion At Knossos and other locations in Crete, large palaces appeared around 2000 BCE, surrounded by communities that can properly be called towns, with houses packed tightly along narrow streets. Shortly, roads were being built right across the island, suggesting that it was spanned by a single political system – the evidence suggests a confederation of principalities rather than one kingdom,
as large palaces that look like royal residences are found in several places, famous for their lively wall frescoes of bullvaulting games and bare-breasted (but otherwise well-clad) women. Writing had been introduced, firstly a hieroglyphic system perhaps based on the Egyptian one, but later adapted to the Minoans’ own needs to become the Linear A script. Archaeological evidence shows that the Minoans had, by the early second millennium BCE, and probably well before, strong trading links with Egypt, Asia Minor and the Levan Twice during the centuries between 2000 and 1400 BCE the greatest of these palaces, at Knossos, was destroyed by earthquakes, and then rebuilt, each time bigger and better than before; and around it grew a city, large by the standards of the day and a rival to most in the ancient Near East.
By 1600 BCE at the latest Minoan trade dominated the eastern Mediterranean, and, although there is no direct evidence, it is likely that she was able to deploy a powerful fleet which kept the seas free from pirates.
tHe sPreAd of civilizAtion By that time, the Minoans were trading actively with the peoples of mainland Greece. These were comparative newcomers to the region, being at the vanguard of that expansion of Indo-European speaking peoples who came down from central Europe in the third millennium BCE, bringing with them a warlike culture focussed around powerful chiefs and their retinues The rise of trade with the Minoans turned the chiefs of south-eastern Greece into middlemen in the metal routes to the west and central Europe,
their fortified settlements evolving into stone- and timberbuilt palace-fortresses, crammed with a wealth of beautiful objects, some imported from Egypt, Syria and further a-field, others homemade by increasingly skilful craftsmen. Much of this wealth was buried with their kings, to be dug up and gawped at by amazed archaeologists millennia later.
tHe triumPH And fAll of knossos On Crete, the later centuries of Minoan history saw the palace of Knossos outshine all the others, suggesting that it was now the seat of a king of the whole island. The palace was a setting for refined luxury, famous today for its elaborate drainage system and running water supply. By this time the Linear A script had been replaced by the Linear B system, more flexible and of more use to a busy bureaucracy (all tablets found, as with the earliest Sumerian writing of a millennium previously, are concerned with administrative matters and economic transactions). In around 1400 BCE, the palace of Knossos was burnt, and this time not rebuilt – in fact, it was thoroughly looted of all its gold and silver. So, too were the neighboring coastal settlements, clear signs of widespread raiding, possibly even an invasion
tHe mycenAeAns With the passing of the commercial power of Knossos, the mainland Greek principalities came into their own, under the loose leadership of Mycenae. Their societies were already literate – they received the Linear B script from the Minoans – and they were expansionist. They planted colonies on Cyprus, and probably on Sicily and southern Italy. On the mainland their palaces increased in size and wealth, with storerooms, servants’ quarters, chariot sheds and other buildings spreading out from the central hall.
Mycenae was the largest of these Greek centers, the palacecitadel surrounded by huge walls and gates, and the royal tombs of great splendor. Other places on the mainland and around the Aegean, such as Argos, Pylos, and Troy (all these and others figure in Homer’s account of the Trojan Wars) also boasted fine, thickwalled palaces, and were all points in the international maritime trade networks of the period.
decline And fAll And then quite suddenly, this glittering Bronze Age world comes to an end, and a simpler, more primitive one takes its place, part of a larger shock to the ancient civilizations of the late second millennium Near East. The Hittite empire vanished, Assyria and Babylon shrank, the Canaanite city-states fell and even Egypt had to fend off invasions from “Sea Peoples” from the north. Exactly what processes were at work can only be conjectured. Many scholars see the roots of these troubles in migrations originating in central Europe. There may have been other factors, however: with the eclipse of Knossos and the rise of the Mycenaean Greeks, a unified sea-power would in all likelihood have been replaced by a more fragmented situation, in which individual states had their own trading and fighting ships. While Mycenae was able to exert its control things went well, but the temptation for the individual princes to trade, and raid, on their own account, must have been great. Raiding may have escalated, wounding the peaceful coexistence needed for maritime trade to flourish, and so the mainstay of civilization in this region would have been undermined.
An AGe of wArfAre Large-scale raids, reinforced by displaced peoples from fallen cities, may have grown in frequency and ferocity (the tale of the siege of Troy may be an elaborated account of such, and this period, later glorified as the “Heroic Age�, seems to have been one of brutal warfare). The weakened Aegean states probably also had to deal with pressure from less civilized tribes coming down from the north, and the combination of events overwhelmed them In any event, from around 1200 BCE, the palaces and towns disappeared, along with the literate scribes and merchants who inhabited them. Large-scale migrations took place, as people crossed from mainland Greece to set up a host of small Greek-speaking settlements on the islands of the Aegean and the west coast of Asia Minor. The Greek mainland itself seems to have experienced not only a dramatic economic and material decline, but also a startling loss of population.
A new society Greece is a country of small fertile plains divided from one another by steep hills and high mountains. The populations of those plains fronting the sea had boat-borne access to the wider world; otherwise, travellers had to traverse difficult upland paths to reach neighboring communities. With the old centers of civilization gone, the people of Greece and the Aegean lived in simple farming villages scattered across these plains. In the place of princes in their dazzling palaces were tough tribal leaders ruling one of these small plains, or a portion of one of the more extensive plains such as Attica, or Boiotia, or Thessaly.
The loyalties of the people were restricted to their small territories, where their fierce local patriotism found a focus in the wooden temple. This was located at the (perhaps metaphorical) center of their valley, often on a mountain spur, frequently on the defensible site of the old palace. These were unsettled times, with the possibility of a raid from the neighboring plain never far away. The people, therefore, built their huts clustered around the temple for defense, walking out daily to farm their lands. The population nucleus and the surrounding territory which it controlled were called a “Polis”. Today we use the term “city-state”, which is a useful one so long as we realize that they were often tiny. Even later, in “Classical” times, a city-state of 5,000 inhabitants was by no means uncommon, and one of 20,000 was large. Well over one hundred of these city-states were scattered over the mainland of Greece, the islands of the Aegean and the west coast of Asia Minor.
tHe rise of clAssicAl Greek civilizAtion c.800-500 Bce
The traditional date for the beginning of Greek civilization is 776 BCE, the year of the first pan-Hellenic Olympic Games. (Actually, this date was worked out centuries later and is almost certainly wrong.) Of course, an entire civilization does not suddenly spring into being in a single year, but this date does provide a convenient marker.From about 800 BCE the Greek population began to expand. The causes of this are not known, but the effect was to create a shortage of good farmland.
At the same time, Phoenician merchants were developing their trade links with the Greeks. The inhabitants of several coastal Greek states responded by developing overseas trading connections of their own. Given the Phoenician dominance of the eastern Mediterranean, this meant looking to the west.
colonizAtion The Ionians (that is, those Greeks who had migrated to the coast of Asia Minor after 1200 BCE) were the first to take up this challenge, and the city-state of Kyme despatched a colony to the west coast of Italy in around 750 BCE. The aim was probably to establish a trading station in the west, but very soon the potential for solving the land shortage was recognized. Other states followed Kyme’s example, and soon a string of Greek colonies had been founded along the coast of southern Italy and Sicily These new city-states, frequently situated on broad, fertile plains, flourished. In due course, some of them, above all Syracuse in Sicily, grew to be amongst the wealthiest and most influential states in the Greek world, and almost immediately they were exporting corn to their mother cities. This stimulated commercial and industrial development in Greece and the Aegean, to produce the luxury goods to pay for the corn (These Greek cities in southern Italy and Sicily also had a profound impact on the history of Italy, by carrying Greek cultural influence there. Soon the rise of the Etruscans, and then Rome, would reshape the history of the ancient world.) Greek craftsmanship and artistry reached new heights, maritime trade expanded enormously, and the wealth of the Greek cities rose.
They were soon planting colonies in the east as well, notably on the shores of the Dardanelles, the Black Sea the North African coast, west of the Nile Delta (Kyrenaica). This process was accompanied by the rebirth of literacy amongst the Greeks. At first, the new sea-going Greeks used the alphabet which the Phoenicians had perfected to aid them in their commercial transactions. However, by 700 BCE at the latest, they had adapted it to suit their own language better. As with most early scripts, this would first have been used for everyday business purposes, but within another hundred years the long, brilliant tradition of Greek literature had begun.
society trAnsformed Population growth and the inflow of new wealth caused many cities to grow into true urban communities, with many thousands of inhabitants. Many people benefited from the economic expansion, but others suffered. The introduction of metal money from Lydia, sometime during the seventh century BCE, streamlined business transactions, quickened economic activity and gave a large boost to the market economy; but it also led to more and more people falling into debt.
sociAl tensions Differences in wealth were becoming far more apparent than before. Many poorer people lost their farms, and some even had to sell themselves and their families into slavery. In the cities, numbers of landless proletariats grew. So too did a new class of able, ambitious, often widely traveled merchants whose wealth challenged that of the old landed aristocracy.
One of the most momentous changes – THE most momentous, when set against the broad backdrop of world history – happened in the political sphere, but is of course rooted in the wider social transformation taking place. In most of the city-states, the Greeks began to get rid of their kings
tHe first rePuBlics It was the Greeks who invented republics, at least in Europe. How exactly this came about is not known. A speculative answer might go something like this: As greater wealth and higher material culture began to flow into the city-states in Greece and the Aegean, their kings began to enlarge their ambitions – it would have been natural to transform themselves into palace-based rulers, just like their Bronze-Age predecessors had done However, this was not the Bronze-Age. Iron, unlike bronze, was plentiful and cheap, and weapons were no longer expensive. This meant that every nobleman (who was at this time the head of a clan) could arm his followers. So, alarmed by the growing ambitions of the king, the nobles ganged up on him and drastically reduced his power or, in most cases, ousted him altogether. The result was the first republics. These had begun to appear by about 750 BCE. These were originally oligarchies, ruled by small groups of aristocrats. However, iron weapons were not just affordable by aristocrats, and the ceaseless wars between the states meant that it was not long before they were arming ordinary farmers and forming them into armies – the extremely effective armies of Greek “hoplites”, or heavyarmed infantry. This gave the common people a potential power they had never had before
tHe tyrAnts The aristocrats, being human, governed in their own narrow interests, frequently at the expense of other groups within the state. For example, they used their control of the law courts to deal harshly with those in debt to them. ' They were able to extend their own estates at the expense of their poorer neighbours, and even to force them and their families into slavery. The simmering resentment that this sort of rule had created was easily tapped by a bold and ambitious noble, and in the city after city, backed by the common people – now armed – tyrants seized power. The word “tyrant” did not then have the pejorative meaning it has today. It simply meant “boss”. Indeed, the Greek tyrants usually did a great deal of good for their states – at least in the first generation. They ensured that the larger landowners could not take ordinary farmers’ land, and many tyrants carried out some measure of land distribution in favor of the poorer sections of the community. Many of them also beautified the cities they ruled; it was above all these rulers who gave their cities their new temples, marketplaces, city walls and so on. This was not only to glorify themselves but also to give employment to the poor, especially in times of famine. Also, they encouraged trade and favored the merchant classes at the expense of the old landed aristocracy. Things often started to go wrong for the tyrants in the second generation, when a capable ruler was followed by his less capable sons. Too often these were quite unfit for their jobs, and in some cases fiendishly cruel to their opponents. All sections of society grew sick of them. So, another revolution would oust the tyrant and bring to power another group
towArds democrAcy Sometimes this was a faction of the old group of aristocrats, in other cases, it was members of the new merchant elite. In either case, intelligent leaders knew that power in the state had to take account of the common people, and so they set about creating a more broad-based constitution, moving the state down the road towards democracy. By no means, all states followed this trajectory. Some, especially in the more backward areas, never got rid of their monarchies; others oscillated between tyranny and oligarchy. But many in the course of time developed a fully democratic form of government. While these political developments were transforming the political landscape, the artistic, material and philosophical culture of the Greeks was going through revolutionary change. Hand in hand with the social and political transformation of the Greek world came a cultural revolution which was to have the most profound implications for the future of western civilization.
literAture Meanwhile, Greek literature had started with the Ionian Greeks of Asia Minor. It was here that the poet Homer composed his epics, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, which were committed to writing not long after 700 BCE. These works set an extraordinarily high standard, some scholars even today regarding them as the finest works of European literature ever produced. The works of the poet Hesiod are not regarded in quite so exalted a light, but his “Works and Days”, composed before 700 BCE, though possibly written down later, sheds light on the everyday working life of contemporary early Greece rather than on a glorious but mythical past
Within a century, two other poets of note had enriched Greek literature: Archilochus of Paros and the lady Sappho of Lesbos. These poets developed a new “lyric” style. Perhaps tellingly, both traveled widely across the sea, between the “Old” Greek world of Greece and the Aegean, and the “New” in Italy and Sicily.
tHe revolution in tHouGHt Most significant of all, the thought-world of ancient Greece was being transformed out of all recognition. Indeed, it was laying the foundations to the future development of all Western philosophy Again, these developments took place initially in Ionia. Here is not the place to deal with this subject in any detail, but after 600 BCE a series of Ionian philosophers, including Thales of Miletus, Anaximandros, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Pythagoras (who actually spent the most productive part of his career in Sicily and Italy), Parmenides and Herakleitos, moved the frontiers of scientific thought, mathematical theory and religious speculation outwards as never before in world history Their ideas and approaches differed widely, and the conclusions they reached often seem to us absurd. But the root of all was a refusal to receive knowledge from earlier generations, and to think things through to one’s own’s answers.
wHy did tHis develoPment occur, tHen And tHere, AmonGst tHe Ancient Greeks? One part of the answer must be to do with the great changes transforming Greek society during this period – they must have made it easier to break free from traditional modes of thought.
The overseas experience of many Greeks must also have been something of an eye-opener. They were discovering that different peoples had different customs, and what was good and proper in one society was unacceptable in another. This caused people to ask, are there things that are intrinsically good? But other ancient peoples experienced change, and others had expanded their horizons into different regions of the world. What was it that made the ancient Greeks breakthrough into new modes of thought when others did not? The fundamental answer has already been alluded to: these people were living in the first republics known to history. For all the factionalism, stupidity and indeed violence of these republics, they allowed a certain freedom of thought. Moreover, when things got too hot for a “free thinker” in one state, he could (and sometimes did) move to another. Finally, these city-states were comparatively tiny. Not all were outward looking, mercantile and maritime; but in those that were, the merchant classes and others who had traveled overseas must have had a far greater influence on the climate of thought that would have been the case in a large kingdom. New horizons and change must have been “in the air”, and that air was a great deal freer than in most other places in the past. By 500 BCE, two states stood head and shoulders above the other Greek city-states in their prestige and influence. These were Athens and Sparta. It was these, therefore – quite different from each other in their cultural and political outlooks – which took the lead in meeting the great challenge that was about to be posed to the Greek world by its mighty eastern neighbor, Persia.
sPArtA c. 700-500 Bce Like other Greek city-states, Sparta suffered from land shortage. However, she was an inland state, so overseas colonizing was not a straightforward solution for her. She solved her problem by conquering her neighbor, Messenia. This put her in a dominating position in her corner of Greece, called Laconia, and made her one of the richer states, and a leading center of Greek civilization. But in 669 BCE, the Spartans were defeated by their near neighbor, Argos. Shortly after, the Messenians rose in revolt, with help from outside. Eventually, the revolt was crushed, but for a time the very existence of Sparta lay in the balance. The Spartans, frightened, but determined to hang on to their subject territories, knew that, if they did so, they would always be faced with the possibility of revolt. They, therefore, undertook a thoroughgoing overhaul of their constitution and their very way of life They
turned their back on luxury, and transformed their state into an armed camp. Their citizens became full-time soldiers, under the most severe discipline, whilst their subject populations became serfs The Spartans soon gained a reputation for invincibility on the battlefield, widely feared by the rest of Greece. To her neighbors, the Spartans adopted a far-seeing policy. They negotiated defensive alliances with each of them, thus forging an enduring alliance system which came to be called the Peloponnesian League.
AtHens c. 700-500 Bc Attica is a broad plain on the eastern coast of Greece just north of the Peloponnese, dominated by its chief city, Athens. Athens was far larger than most other Greek city-states, with a population numbering well over one hundred thousand. Perhaps because of this her political evolution had been slow – in 600 BCE she was still ruled by a narrow oligarchy of aristocrats. By that date, however, she was experiencing all the problems which other Greek states had faced, particularly land shortage and tensions between classes. An attempt to reduce tensions had been made when the politician Draco had been asked to draft a law code so that court rulings could be made more transparent. In the event, he had made things worse, as he simply took it as his brief to codify already existing customs – and so many misdemeanors resulted in the death penalty that it only increased the disaffection of the poor. Ever since then “Draconian” measures have become a by-word for heartless severity. Shortly after 600 BCE a second attempt at a law code was attempted, this time the work of Solon. His code embodied moderation – there would be no redistribution of land, but existing debts were canceled and enslavement for debt would cease. He also gave more power to the people by re-organizing their assembly and giving it teeth. We look back at Solon’s work and are impressed. At the time it pleased no one, and the tensions continued. Half a century later, in 546 BCE, a nobleman, Peisistratus, seized power (after a couple of failed attempts) and established a tyranny. Under his rule and that of his sons, the economy of Athens was greatly strengthened.
The government encouraged the export of olives and olive oil to pay for the import of corn. Other industries were also promoted, Athens becoming the leading industrial and commercial city of Greece. The fine Attic pottery soon dominated the Mediterranean markets. At the same time, the tyrants beautified the city with temples, and constructed conduits to bring fresh water to its inhabitants The tyranny lasted until 510 BCE, when, after a short period of turmoil, the statesman Kleisthenes came to power, and carried out further reforms of the constitution These greatly strengthened the people’s power, gave them a real measure of executive power, and unified the Athenian citizenry by taking power away from locally- based or clanbased tribes and setting up artificial, pan-Athenian tribes in their stead. The Athenian form of government can henceforth in truth be called a democracy.
tHe clAssicAl AGe of Greece In the years leading up to 500 BCE, storm clouds had been gathering which threatened the entire Greek world, and had by then already engulfed the Ionian states. The huge Persian empire was on the move. The Greek city-states, under the leadership of Athens and Sparta, stoutly defended themselves in one of the truly decisive wars in history
PersiAn exPAnsion In 546 BCE Lydia had fallen to the armies of a new eastern power, Persia, and in short order the Ionian cities were subdued too. Persian rule was at first light, and so long as the cities paid their tribute they were left more or less to get on with their own affairs.
However, the Persians’ demand for taxes and men for their expeditions steadily increased, and the Persians progressively installed pro-Persian tyrants in all these cities. In 513 BCE the Persian king, Darius, led an expedition across the Dardanelles into Macedonia and Thrace, which achieved little but served notice on Greece that Persian ambitions in this region were by no means satisfied
tHe ioniAn revolt In 499 BCE, the Ionian cities of Asia Minor rose in revolt against their Persian masters. They sought aid from Sparta and Athens. Sparta refused but Athens agreed. The revolt was slowly put down by the Persians, and, after some severe reprisals, they imposed a more lenient settlement than before on the Greek cities: tribute was eased and the citizens were left to organize their own affairs with less interference from the imperial authorities – even democracies were permitted. However, the mainland Greeks, and Athens in particular, were now in the Persians’ direct line of fire, a fact about which they had no doubts. As in most states faced with this kind of threat, the Athenians were divided into those who felt it best to come to terms with the enemy, and those who stood for no surrender.
tHe first PersiAn invAsion of Greece Gradually the Athenians came round to the “no surrender” view, and put their faith in Themistocles, one of the most brilliant statesmen Athens ever produced. By 490 BCE the Persians had completed the re-conquest of Ionia, and in that year launched a large sea-borne invasion across the Aegean, landing at Marathon, near Athens. Here their army was trounced by the much smaller Athenian army, and the Persian fleet sailed away leaving many dead.
tHe second PersiAn invAsion of Greece The Persians tried again ten years later, this time under the personal command of their king, Xerxes, and with a huge force. Having thrown a bridge of boats lashed together across the Bosphorus, the narrow sea between Europe and Asia; and having dug a canal through an isthmus at Mt Athos to avoid the particularly dangerous coast there; the Persians marched along the Aegean coast, their fleet and army keeping in close touch and moving in tandem, and approached Greece from the north. Meanwhile, under Themistocles’ prodding, Athens had taken more steps to strengthen its democracy by placing the important magistracies into the hands of the people, and by greatly expanding its navy. In Athens, naval power and democracy went together. The men who rowed the galleys were the poorest citizens, who could not afford their own armor. So, they had a vested interest in increasing the amount of galley-work, for which they were paid a generous daily rate. They were also the section of the community who wished to see the most radical democracy, as it was this form of government that gave them the most power. On this occasion, this vested interest turned out to be in the interests of all Greece. Themistocles had successfully called for the revenue from Athens’ expanded silver mines at Laurion to pay for the fleet. Three Great Battles The preparations of the Persians, especially the digging of the canal at Mt Athos, gave due notice to the Greeks of hostile intentions, and the Greek citystates held a conference to plan their defense. An army under Spartan command was positioned at the pass of Thermopylae, and a mainly Athenian fleet was positioned close by, at Artemision.
The Persians broke through this barrier, but only after hard fighting and the withdrawal of most of the Greek army intact, covered by the magnificent courage of a small Spartan force at Thermopylae. With the Greek army in a strong defensive line across the Peloponnesian Isthmus blocking the Persian advance, Xerxes decided to turn the Greek lines by sea. The Athenian navy stood in his way, and at the resulting battle of Salamis, crippled the Persian fleet. Xerxes withdrew his army from Athens (which the Athenians had evacuated and he had burnt), and himself left for Asia. The Persian forces left in Greece were, early in the following year (479 BCE), heavily defeated at the battle of Plataia by a combined Greek army under Spartan command. The Persians evacuated Greece as best they could. Athens emerged from the Persian War of 480-79 with her prestige immensely enhanced. Moreover, her naval power made her the natural leader in the continuing struggle to drive the Persians from the Aegean. Athenian political leadership was soon accompanied by an astonishing cultural pre-eminence.
tHe leAGue AGAinst PersiA With the withdrawal of the Persian army from Greek soil in 479 BCE, the Greek city-states turned again to their own affairs. The Ionian cities, however, again revolted, and Athens took the lead in protecting them from Persian revenge. She organized a league of all the liberated Aegean states. As its treasury was at Delos, and its congress met on that island, this was known as the Delian League Within a few years the league had eradicated Persian bases in or near the Aegean, and achieved complete naval dominance in that sea. Athens, however, refused to call a halt to the hostilities, though opposition to the war grew amongst her allies.
The important city of Naxos seceded from the League. The Athenians decided that secession could not be tolerated, and forced Naxos back into the League as a non-combatant but tribute-paying member In 466 BCE, the League navy destroyed the rebuilt Persian fleet at the river Eurymedon, in the Levant. This did not stop other League members from seceding, for by now the Athenians were no longer the popular liberators they had originally been. Their strict control of the League, together with increasing interference in the internal affairs of member states, had aroused widespread resentment.
tHe imPeriAl rePuBlic Athenian dominance was strengthened by the allies’ preference to pay tribute rather than contribute men and ships to the League war effort. As a result, Athens’ navy grew larger whilst that of her “allies” shrank. Several revolts were put down, and after each one a democratic government was installed. Athens also started projecting her power further afield, winning victories and gaining allies in Boiotia at the expense of Thebes and in the Peloponnese at the expense of Corinth and even Sparta. The Athenians, however, suffered a huge disaster in Egypt, attempting to support a revolt against the Persians, and lost a large fleet there (454 BCE), which led, after some more inconclusive fighting, to the treaty (449 BCE) ending the war between Athens and Persia. Further reverses at the hands of her Greek rivals led to Athens withdrawing from Boeotia and the Peloponnese and the signing the 30 Years Peace with Sparta (445 BCE).
tHe AGe of Pericles By now, one statesman had dominated Athenian politics for more then fifteen years. His name was Pericles. Pericles was a great orator, trusted by the Athenian assembly, and usually managed to persuade them to follow a particular course of action. He now persuaded the people to start building the great temple that would become known as the Parthenon. During the next ten years this temple, as well as other magnificent buildings such as the Propylaea of the Acropolis, rose above the city. This building programme was not only done to beautify the city but also to provide work for the Athenian poor, no longer needed to row Athens’ galley fleets against the Persians. Not that the Delian League, whose raison d’etre had been to fight the Persians, had been allowed to lapse. Far from it. Athens indeed tightened its grip over its “allies” (now, in reality, subject states), and it was the League tribute (with its treasury now transferred from Delos to Athens itself) that was used to finance the building. To Athens came the finest artists from all over Greece to contribute to this programme. Other branches of high culture flourished too. Anaxagoras continued the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and sophist teachers such as Protagoras began the formal Anaxagoras continued the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and sophist teachers such as Protagoras began the formal training in rhetoric and logic. Most enduring of all, and exercising a profound influence on future Western literature, the Athenians themselves produced a series of great dramatists, first Aeschylus, then Sophocles, next Euripides and finally Aristophanes.
The last two were to produce their greatest works as Athens went down to defeat in the Peloponnesian wars. The tensions between Athens and Sparta dragged the whole of Greece into a long, brutal war. It ended in disaster for Athens and left few areas of the Greek world untouched
A time of trouBles, tHe GAtHerinG storm Sparta had had mixed fortunes since leading the Greek armies to victory at Plataia in 479. She had had to fight a war with her old enemies Argos and Arcadia in the 470s, and at the same time face a revolt of her serfs in Messenia. The Spartans were heavily outnumbered and had to give up some territory to Argos in order to be able to defeat her other foes. A destructive earthquake in 465 caused great loss of life. Immediately the helots – Sparta’s serfs – rose in a more serious revolt than for many years. The Messenians holed themselves up in a strong mountain fortress, and could only be reduced after a long siege. Then Sparta suffered reverses and loss of influence in a short war with Athens in the 450s, though she turned the table by invading Attica and giving the Athenians a fright in 446, which led to the favorable 30 Years Peace in 445. Sparta stood for traditional aristocratic values, and was seen by many throughout Greece as the champion against newfangled and dangerous democracy. Just as the Athenians sponsored democratic governments amongst their allies, the Spartans supported oligarchies amongst theirs. The two leading Greek states represented opposing causes, and could not for long live together. This was all the more so because many groups amongst Sparta’s allies looked to Athens to help them establish democracies within their states,
whilst other groups amongst Athens’ allies looked to Sparta to help them stamp out democracy within theirs!
tHe PeloPonnesiAn wArs The clash came with a dispute between Corinth and her neighbor Kerkyra in 431, with Corinth looking to support from Sparta and the Peloponnesian League and Kerkyra looking to Athens and the Delian League. The resulting general warfare was desultory and complicated, but the outstanding features and events are easily described. The first years of the war were characterized by Spartan invasions of Attica, causing much damage to the countryside surrounding Athens but with no real damage done to the Athenian people or their ability to wage war. They crowded inside the Long Walls that encircled the city and her port and were provisioned by her fleet. A serious plague struck the crowded city in 429-27, and a quarter of her inhabitants died, including Pericles. Even this did not seriously affect the Athenian ability to wage war while they dominated the sea. At the core of the next phase of the war was an audacious Spartan campaign to seize Amphipolis, an Athenian ally on the north coast of Greece which controlled access to a rich gold- and timber-bearing region. This was a serious blow to Athens, but her attempts to recapture the city failed. In the same year a march into Boiotia was soundly defeated, and in 421 both sides were happy to make peace.
BrutAlizAtion And BeAuty Many other events took place in the war, and all Greeks were affected in some way or other. Away from the front lines, bloody class war engulfed many cities, with revolutions and counter-revolutions featuring vindictive atrocities.
In the front line, whole cities were destroyed, the men killed, the women and children sold into slavery. Thucydides, the Athenian historian who chronicled the war in what is regarded as the first “modern” (i.e. analytical) work of history, comments on the decline in morality that a long war brings. Despite all this, men continued to produce great works of art and literature – even in beleaguered Athens, even as her fall approached. These were the years when Hippocrates, the founder of Western medicine, worked, as did the philosopher Democritus. The playwrights Euripides and Aristophanes moved the boundaries of drama forward; and above all, Socrates, the great questioner of all things, was busy irritating people by asking them to think through their received beliefs and attitudes.
AtHens in defeAt Towards the end of the Peloponnesian wars, a brief revolution had brought an oligarchy to power in Athens – the rule of the 400. It lasted two years before internal divisions and mutiny in the fleet restored the democracy. Now, after the war, Sparta imposed another oligarchic government. She also dismantled the Long Walls which encircled the city and her port, reduced her fleet to twelve galleys, for local patrol work, and bound Athens to her with an alliance that effectively turned her into a Spartan subject. This was, in fact, a great deal better than some of Sparta’s allies had been urging her to do, which was to wipe Athens off the face of the map and sell her people into slavery.The rule of the oligarchs, or “Thirty Tyrants” as they were called, soon degenerated into a reign of terror. This provoked the inevitable revolution to restore democracy, which, surprisingly, the Spartans allowed.
sPArtA in victory This, and the jealousy of other leading Greek states (duly inflamed by Persian diplomacy and gold), led her to find herself at war as early as 395 with a coalition which included Argos (her traditional enemy in the Peloponnese), Corinth, Thebes and Athenst
He HiGH Point of sPArtAn Power This war checked her power for a time, and enabled Athens to rebuild her Long Walls as well as to start re-building her fleet. The Persian king Artaxerxes II, preoccupied as he was by troubles closer to home, had come to the conclusion that his empire’s interests could best be served by peace on its western border. He, therefore, brought the war to an end by proposing to all the leading Greek states that, in exchange for the Ionian cities being confirmed as under Persian rule, she would leave the mainland states in peace, and that they, in turn, should respect the independence of each other. Sparta was in fact the chief beneficiary of this Peace. She set about bringing her own allies under stricter control, and, posing as the champion of the “independence� clauses of the Peace, marched north, sacked the city of Olynthos and dissolved its growing League In the course of this adventure, a Theban oligarchic faction opened the city to a Spartan garrison, who then remained there to guaranty the rule of the new pro-Spartan regime. These events marked the high point of Spartan power.
tHe risinG Power of tHeBes In 379 the Thebans expelled the Spartan garrison and reimposed their rule in Boiotia. Sparta could not stand by and let this happen and invaded Boiotia on an annual basis for several years. The Spartans were keen to avoid the heavy losses even a victorious battle might bring (the number of full Spartan citizens, the core of her army, had been declining for more than a century), so they achieved very little besides actually strengthening the control Thebes had over her neighbours.
Eventually the Spartans did confront the Thebans in a set battle, at Leuktra (371), Due to the inspired generalship of the Theban commander, Epaminondas, the Spartans lost heavily; hundreds of their precious Spartiates were killed, and the myth of Spartan invincibility was gone
AtHeniAn renAissAnce Meanwhile, the power of Athens had been on the increase again, and fear of Spartan and a renascent Persian naval power had caused her to form, and her former allies to join, a new League. At one point it included seventy states. However, the Athenians’ uncontrollable imperialistic tendencies caused leading states to secede from it in 357/355. Athens was thereafter never able to recover anything like her former greatness. Her cultural life continued unabated, however; this was the age of Plato, and his foundation of the Academy, which was to remain the most revered institute of higher education throughout the rest of ancient history; the age too of Praxiteles, for some art historians the greatest of Greek sculptors. By now, however, events were taking place in the north that would dim for ever the independent life of the city-states of ancient Greece. Macedonia, under its shrewd king Philip II, was expanding, and increasingly involving itself with the affairs of its southern neighbours.
mAcedoniA Macedon was a kingdom to the north of Greece. Indeed, the Macedonians themselves claimed to be Greeks, but Athenians and others regarded them as at least semibarbaric. Perhaps due to its location far from the main currents of Greek life, she had retained more primitive political institutions than her southern neighbors:
she was still ruled by powerful kings, served by an old-style landed nobility. Macedonia lay wide open to attack from Thracians and Illyrians to the north and west, and the early fourth century saw the Macedonians fighting on all fronts against Thracians, Illyrians and also Greeks. When the capable young king Philip II came to power in 359 BCE he had to spend several years securing the frontiers, by a mix of war and diplomacy n the course of these wars he re-organized his army and turned it into the finest military force in Greece. By the 340s he was able to go over to the offensive. He expanded his frontiers in all directions, including subduing the Greek cities on the coast. He then interfered in the quarrels of the northern Greek states and by 340 Macedonia was the strongest power in Thessaly. At this the southern Greek cities grew alarmed, and Athens forged an alliance against Philip which was joined by most of the leading states including Corinth and Megara. The two sides met at the battle of Chaironea in 338 BCE. Philip was victorious – thanks in great part to a dashing cavalry charge led by his son, Alexander. This battle effectively ended the independence of the Greek city-states. At a congress the following year Philip formed a League of all the states of Greece, with himself as CaptainGeneral. He was about to lead it on a campaign against Persia when he was assassinated, to be succeeded by his young son, Alexander.
Ancient Greece A Project By GAys in tHe city 2018
Ancient Greece GAve tHe world All tHe tHinGs we enjoy And tAke for GrAntd todAy