Ancient Greek History

After the settlements of these new colonies, we embark into the most significant and accomplished era of Greece’s long, illustrious history; one which experienced a flowering of great culture and created important social mechanisms, yet also endured times of upheaval and instability.  Ancient Greece has marked out its place in world history and is still admired and studied to this day, and her great achievements remain cemented in the annals of history.         

Ancient Greece was the birthplace of democracy, with the city-states succeeding the fiefdoms and tribal states.  The term ‘city-state’, even if its essence had already appeared in earlier years, was then founded, along with other significant political changes that took place in Greece.  It was also during this time that the foundations for a democratic society were laid, with a free and vibrant citizenship, while important steps were also taken in the field of justice with the appearance of Draco’s Laws in the year 621 B.C., which became the basis of the legislative and legal system of later Greece.    

The constructive result of these changes was a spiritual revival of society; the inevitable growth and integration, legal code and Greek alphabet all strongly contributed to the cultural development of later Greece.  It was also during this time that first official Greek currency was put into circulation.  The key cultural developments of the time centered around the athletic competition of the Olympic Games, music and later, prose, as well as the artistic craftsmanship designs that ornate the Parthenon, the Kouros statues and maidens.  The great epics The Iliad and The Odyssey by the hand of Homer also appeared during this era of creativity and growth.  These literary works are taught in schools today around the globe, as masterpieces in epic poetry.                  

Athens and Sparta

This ancient period has born great achievements in a variety of arenas, but at the same time fed and fueled the rivalry between the period’s two largest cities; Athens and Sparta, which ignited the Peloponnesian Wars, that saw Sparta emerge as the victor.  The two cities had fundamental differences, with the Spartans distinguishing themselves with their military organization, manpower and effectiveness, while the spotlight in Athens focused on her societal organization and philosophy, and commerce.  In Athens, Solon’s law abolished the debts and indentured servitude of the citizens, but also with the city-state’s Church (where anyone over the age 30 was required to participate in), in an effort to bring out the strongest, most publicly-supported city-state and community possible.
Sparta, on the other hand, remained committed to an oligarch government, which supported a strong and effective military.  This particular period ends with the invasion of the Persians in the 5th century B.C., where we turn a new page in the history of Greece.                      

Greek Classical Period

The Greek Classical Period, which stretches from the 5th through the 4th century B.C., is the most enlightened period for Greece, but primarily for Athens, who experienced a great rise that produced celebrated and remarkable philosophers and intellectuals alike.  Having successfully repelled the Persian attacks of the 5th century, Greece experienced its ‘Golden Age’.     

The Persian Wars

Prior to Greece coming into her Golden Age, she had to endure what seemed like endless attacks and invasions by the Persians, who wanted to expand their empire into the Mediterranean Sea.  They deployed three campaigns at the start of the 5th century B.C., with the Greeks warding them off despite the large advantage of soldiers the Persian army had. They key and most notable battles of these three invasions were;

•    In the city of Marathon, under the rule of Miltiades, the Greeks, vastly outnumbered, decimated the Persian troops while their own losses were negligible.
•    The Battle at Plataea, which was already a victorious endeavor for the Greek armies.
•    The naval battles at Salamis and Mycale, with the Greek fleets defeating those of the Persians.
•    The Battle at Thermopylae, where the 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians under the leadership of Leonidas, were defeated while fighting with vigor and bravery; this battle and the valiant effort on the part of the Greeks will forever be remembered in the annals of military history.          

Golden Age of Athens

The triumph of the Greeks against the Persian threat was followed the pinnacle of Athenian greatness, which emerged as the foremost city of the time and as a great naval power and political center.  Athens’ place on top was sustained for an extended period of time due in large part to the effective leadership of Pericles, who during the 4th century B.C., helped create essential societal and political institutions.  These institutions included a governing legislative body and the official Church of the city-state, which contributed to the validation of Athens being the birthplace of democracy.           

The most advanced, celebrated and revered architectural structure of the day was the Acropolis.  While in the cultural arena, philosophy found fertile ground for intellectual growth and advancement through greats like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, who distinguished themselves by opening their own schools of philosophy.  Also during this time, the Greek Tragedy first appeared, with the most well-known playwrights being Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; whose works are still studied and performed in theaters, including the political satire by Aristophanes, who also was a popular playwright at the time.  Finally, Herodotus and Thucydides (known as the Fathers of History), inspired by both the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, left for us important historical literary works.           

Peloponnesian War

The Golden Age of Athens and her ascending growth and development resulted in the dominance over her allies, prompting a reaction by the military-power Sparta.  In 431 B.C., the rivalry between the two cities headed towards civil war, known as the Peloponnesian War. This conflict among fellow Greeks lasted for 27 years and is historically the toughest and bloodiest in Greece’s history.  In the year 404 B.C., the war ended with the Spartans emerging as victorious, who fractured and splintered the Athenian homogeny.  Afterwards, Sparta surfaced as the region’s lone superpower.  Thebes, however, would later counter Sparta and finally put an end to her reign.              

Macedonian Empire

After the disputes that led to the weakening and dismantling of the two leading Greek city-states, a new regional power emerged; Macedonia, under the leadership of King Philip II, who had a strong enough military base to organize campaigns against Persia.  
At the battle of Chaeronia in 338 B.C., King Philip II established his dominance by defeating the united front of Athens and Thebes, and eventually forming a confederation of all the Greek city-states to stand against the Persian enemy.   

Alexander the Great

After the murder of King Philip, the campaign against Persia fell onto the hands of his 20-year old son Alexander, known in history as “Alexander the Great”.  Conjuring grand strategic, military plans and having unique combat skills, Alexander swept through the ranks to take over the throne as king, and imposed an expansionist policy.

The course of victory for Alexander started at the Granicus River, where he felt the Persians were showing their greatest strength, but also their thirst for bloodshed and zeal for winning.  Alexander and his army overtook many new areas such as Asia Minor and Egypt (where the city Alexandria is named after him) and marched towards conquering the Persian Empire.  The key battle that opened the door for his conquest of the Empire played out at Gaugamela in 331 B.C., where he sacked the armies of Darius and forced him to flee.  In turn, the great Persian cities of Persepolis and Pasargadae fell under the control of Alexander.       

Alexander’s expansionist policies allowed him to understand and appreciate the lands that he and his army came across.  Having already achieved his goal of bringing about the fall of the Persian Empire, Alexander wanted to continue the expansionist policy and reached as far east as the Indus River Valley.  This is where he aspired to replace the Persian Empire with that of the Macedonian.  This new empire was a melting pot of three cultures; Persian, Macedonian and Hellenic, each contributing their traditions, values and intellect upon the local peoples.  Alexander aimed at assimilating the conquered peoples by instilling in them Hellenism, in hopes that it would reach all four corners of the globe.

Unfortunately, Alexander did not reach his ultimate goals, not because his armies were defeated by a superior empire, but rather he succumbed to a strong fever, which led to his untimely death at the young age of thirty-three.  The great Macedonian Empire, which stretched from Egypt to India, soon began to unravel and eventually fell.            

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