Chronology:
– Classical antiquity in the Mediterranean region began in the 8th century BC.
– The Greek Dark Ages spanned from c.1200 – c.800 BC.
– The Archaic Period started around the 8th century BC.
– The Classical Period lasted from the Persian invasion in 480 BC to Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC.
– The Hellenistic period extended from 323–146 BC.
Historiography:
– Ancient Greece was the first period with comprehensive historiography.
– Herodotus is known as the father of history.
– Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, and Aristotle succeeded Herodotus.
– Athenian authors dominated historical writings.
– Focus was on political, military, and diplomatic history.
Political Organization:
– The polis became the primary unit of political organization.
– Small independent city-states developed in Greece.
– City-states became the primary political unit.
– Tyrants rose to power in various Greek states.
– Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean.
– Athens developed its democratic system.
Culture and Influence:
– The Parthenon in Athens symbolizes Greek culture.
– Classical Greece influenced ancient Rome.
– Greek culture spread throughout the Mediterranean.
– Classical Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization.
– Philosophy, politics, science, and art thrived in Classical Greece.
Key Events and Wars:
– Ionian city states rebelled against Persian rule in 499 BC.
– The Greco-Persian Wars, including battles at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea.
– Transformation of the Delian League into an Athenian empire.
– Outbreak and major events of the Peloponnesian War.
– Athenian defeats, surrender to Sparta, and aftermath of the Peloponnesian War.
Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (c. 600 AD), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories. Most of these regions were officially unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire from 336 to 323 BC. In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period.
.jpg)
Three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and the colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Greece, from the Greco-Persian Wars to the 5th to 4th centuries BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenistic civilization from the western Mediterranean to Central Asia. The Hellenistic period ended with the conquest of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, and the annexation of the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.
Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on ancient Rome, which carried a version of it throughout the Mediterranean and much of Europe. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered the cradle of Western civilization, the seminal culture from which the modern West derives many of its founding archetypes and ideas in politics, philosophy, science, and art.
