What was Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was the civilization founded by the ancient Greek people. This civilization stands out in history for inheriting to the world political ideas such as democracy, educational institutions such as academies, and influential artistic and architectural styles.
Greek civilization emerged after the fall of the Mycenaean civilization around 1100 BC, and lasted until the Greek defeat by Rome at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC.
With the outcome of the Battle of Corinth, the Romans conquered most of Hellas, the original name of Ancient Greece. Even so, Greek cultural influence both in the Roman world and in the Middle East and Egypt remained throughout the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC).
The Hellenes – as the Greeks called themselves – populated steep and rocky territories near the coasts of the Mediterranean. For that reason, they did not develop large-scale agriculture like other ancient civilizations.
Its economic flourishing depended on the expansion of maritime trade. In their period of splendor, the Greeks occupied cities in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, islands in the Aegean Sea and the western coast of Asia Minor. The Hellenic colonies also extended across southern Italy and the northern coast of Africa.
History of Ancient Greece
The history of Hellas originated with the arrival of people from northern Europe to the Balkan Peninsula. These migrants already spoke archaic Greek dialects. Upon settling in the Peloponnese, they founded one of their most important citadels: Mycenae.
The Mycenaean civilization takes its name from that city, which prospered between 1600 and 1100 BC. Then, it was destroyed and abandoned. The people of the Mycenaean civilization were called “Achaeans” in The Iliad and The odysseythe epic poems that Homer sang centuries later.
The Greeks remembered the Achaeans as great warriors, victorious in the Trojan War. However, with the destruction of Mycenae, probably at the hands of Dorian peoples who also migrated to Hellas, their civilization collapsed. Thus began the dark ages.
Chronological table of Ancient Greece.
Dark Ages (1100- 776 BC)
This period coincides with the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in the region. This stage is called dark due to the loss of written records and the little that can be known through the small amount of archaeological finds.
Everything indicates that it was a period of population decline, with small communities and economic backwardness.
Archaic Era (776- 490 BC)
We take as our starting point 776 BC, the date of the celebration of the first Olympic games, so called because they were held in the community of Olympia. The archaic era saw the revival of trade between communities, writing also reappeared, as the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet. The polis emerged and grew.
The polis was the autonomous city-state. In these forms of political organization appeared such as:
The oligarchy: the government of a group of nobles and rich people.
Tyranny: the government taken over by a despot through coups or revolts. That is, imposing itself outside the city’s constitution, although on many occasions it had popular support.
In these centuries, the Greek peoples: Achaeans, Ionians, Dorians and Aeolians expanded and founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Thus, epic poetry spread and, in the 6th century BC, the origin of philosophy took place.
The end of the archaic era occurs when Athens, Sparta and other cities linked to both formed the common defense alliance against the advance of the Persian empire of Darius I in Hellenic lands.
Classic Period (490-323 BC)
During the classical period, Greece saw the flowering of its humanistic and artistic manifestations. However, the freedom of its polis was threatened by the stalking of an external enemy: the Persian empire.
The Persian Wars (490-449 BC)
The polis proved to be unconquerable when facing the Persian emperors Darius I, Xerxes I and Artaxerxes for half a century. After many setbacks suffered in the Persian Wars, Persia finally accepted the peace of Callias (449 BC) and abandoned its claims to Greece.
Birth of democracy
Between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, a political system emerged that gave all citizens of the polis a voice to participate in decision-making on public affairs. As in this power was given (in Greek Kratos) to town (let’s give), then it was called democracy.
The best known democracy is that of Athens due to the written records of its laws and decrees. There are also descriptions of democratic functioning in texts by historians such as Thucydides, in plays such as those of Aristophanes, and in fragments of speeches by orators such as Pericles and Demosthenes.
Other cities with democratic forms were Syracuse, Argos, Corinth, Megara and the island of Rhodes. But little is known about their operation given the lack of sources that describe them.
See also Democracy.
Philosophy, culture and arts
Classical Greek culture experienced an explosion of creativity. Wise men like Socrates reflected on topics such as love, justice and knowledge. His ideas were recorded in the texts of his student Plato, who was the founder of the Academy of Athens and teacher of Aristotle.
History was born as a discipline that sought to tell the truth of what happened. Thus, the first historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, turned to memory and real testimonies to narrate what happened in wars and other events.
In the arts, writers such as Sophocles showed in theater the conflicts between human virtues and passions in their tragedies. The sculpture of the time was manifested in the realism of faces that expressed feelings and bodies in movement. Among the notable sculptors were Polycletus and Myron.
The Discobolus, sculpture by Myron of Eleutheras (480-440 BC). The image shows the reproduction present in the Copenhagen botanical garden.
Classical architecture was highlighted by the construction of impressive amphitheaters, hippodromes and temples. Greek architects especially appreciated the balance of proportions in their buildings. The decorative styles or orders were distinguished on the columns. The main orders were the Doric, the Ionic and the Corinthian.
A notable example of the architecture of the classical era is the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. This Doric style temple was designed by the architects Ictinio and Callícrates. Its construction began in 447 BC to house a monumental statue of the goddess Athena, protector of the city.
The Parthenon. Painting by Ippolito Caffi (1809-1866).
See also:
The Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC)
Once the Persians were expelled from Hellenic territories, Athens increased its economic and political power. But rivalry soon arose between it and Sparta, which saw its influence diminish. Both polis formed confederations that joined other cities in alliance.
The Peloponnesian League supported Sparta, while the Delian League sided with Athens. After almost thirty years of fighting, the Spartans emerged victorious. But most cities, including Sparta, were devastated or impoverished.
This gave rise to the fact that shortly afterwards, in the 4th century BC, King Philip II of Macedonia decided to impose his will on Greek territory. Philip II’s successor was his son, the conqueror Alexander the Great, who changed the history of antiquity and brought about the coming of the Hellenistic world.
Map showing the allies of Sparta and Athens in the run-up to the Peloponnesian War. The Balkan Peninsula extends from Thrace and Illyria in the north until reaching the peninsular extension of the Peloponnese in the far south, which is barely connected to the rest by the Isthmus of Corinth. Image courtesy of: Marsyas and Molorco.
Greek Empire and Hellenistic civilization (323-31 BC)
Alexander the Great of Macedonia was able to rally the armies of the Greek polis to have a common purpose: to be conquerors. They triumphed over the Persian Empire and took over the territories of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Their victories took them so far that they even reached the borders of India.
This expansion generated the mixture of classical Greek culture with the culture of the East. That period originated by the imperial advance of the Alexandrian troops is known as Hellenistic. The empire, however, was united for a short time. Alexander died in 323 BC when he was just 33 years old.
Upon his death, the commanders disputed the leadership of the empire. The claims led to disagreements and the extensive territories ended up being divided into three kingdoms and multiple satrapies (governors).
The disintegration of the Greek empire
The most important lineages to emerge from the imperial division were those established by the generals Ptolemy, who reigned over Egypt, and Seleucus, who reigned over Mesopotamia and Syria. However, after decades of rule by their descendants, they succumbed to the emerging power of Rome.
In 146 BC the Roman army defeated the Achaean League in Corinth. The Seleucid Empire collapsed during the 1st century BC. The last dynasty standing was the Ptolemaic.
Finally, in 31 BC the forces of Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, were defeated at the Battle of Actium. Its failure turned the last great Greek kingdom into a Roman province. The influence of Greece would then only remain through its art, its culture and its language for centuries to come.
Bibliography
Finley, Moses (2000) Ancient Greece. Economy and society. booket publishing house. Madrid.
Finley, Moses (1982) Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages. WW Norton & Co. New York.
Ober, Josiah (2015) The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece. Princeton University Press. Princeton.
Petit, Paul and Laronde, André (2014) Hellenistic civilization. Jus Publishing. Mexico.
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