Chronology
There are no fixed or universally agreed upon dates for the beginning or the end of the ancient Greek period. In common usage it refers to all Greek history before the
Roman Empire, but historians use the term more precisely. Some writers include the periods of the Greek-speaking
Mycenaean civilization that collapsed about
1150 BC, though most would argue that the influential
Minoan was so different from later Greek cultures that it should be classed separately.
In Greek school books, "ancient times" is a period of about 900 years, from the catastrophe of
Mycenae until the conquest of the country by the
Romans, divided into four periods based on styles of art and culture and politics. The historical line starts with
Greek Dark Ages (
1100–
800 BC). In this period artists use geometrical schemes such as squares, circles and lines to decorate
amphoras and other pottery. The
archaic period (
800–
480 BC) represents those years when the artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, hieratic poses with the dreamlike "
archaic smile". In the classical period (490–
323 BC) artists perfected the style that since has been taken as exemplary: "
classical", such as the
Parthenon. The years following the conquests of
Alexander are referred to as the
Hellenistic, (323–
146 BC), or
Alexandrian period; aspects of Hellenic civilization expanded to Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia and beyond.
Traditionally, the ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first recorded
Olympic Games in
776 BC, but many historians now extend the term back to about
1000 BC. The traditional date for the end of the ancient Greek period is the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The following period until the integration of Greece into the
Roman Republic in 146 BC is classed
Hellenistic.
These dates are historians' conventions and some writers treat the ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running until the advent of
Christianity in the
3rd century.
Origins
The Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the
Balkan peninsula in several waves beginning in the late
3rd millennium BC, the last being the
Dorian invasion.
Proto-Greek is assumed to date to some time between the 23rd and 17th centuries BC. The period from
1600 BC to about 1100 BC is described in
History of Mycenaean Greece known for the reign of
King Agamemnon and the wars against Troy as narrated in the epics of
Homer. The period from 1100 BC to the
8th century BC is a "
Dark Age" from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains. Secondary and tertiary texts such as
Herodotus'
''Histories'',
Pausanias' ''Description of Greece'',
Diodorus' ''Bibliotheca'', and
Jerome's
''Chronicon'' contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period. The history of Ancient Greece is often taken to end with the reign of
Alexander the Great, who died in
323 BC. Subsequent events are described in
Hellenistic Greece.
Any history of ancient Greece requires a cautionary note on sources. Those Greek historians and political writers whose works have survived, notably
Herodotus,
Thucydides,
Xenophon,
Demosthenes,
Plato and
Aristotle, were mostly either
Athenian or pro-Athenian. That is why we know far more about the history and politics of Athens than of any other city, and why we know almost nothing about some cities' histories. These writers, furthermore, concentrate almost wholly on political, military and diplomatic history, and ignore economic and social history. All histories of ancient Greece have to contend with these limits in
their sources.
The Greek
genetical tree was constructed revealed homogeneity between Europeans. Median networks revealed that most of the Greek haplotypes are clustered to the five known
haplogroups and that a number of
haplotypes are shared among Greeks and other European and Near Eastern populations. No significant differences with other European populations were found for the loci studied.
[Genetic studies in 5 Greek population samples using 12 highly polymorphic DNA loci, Human Biology, Feb 1999 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_199902/ai_n8845695] [Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in Greeks.Hum Biol, Vol. 73, No. 6. (December 2001), pp. 855-869. http://www.citeulike.org/user/Archaeogenetics/article/511923]
History
Archaic period
8th century
In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the
Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the
Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges.
7th century
The Greek cities were originally monarchies, although many of them were very small and the term "king" (''
basileus'') for their rulers is misleadingly grand. In a country always short of farmland, power rested with a small class of landowners, who formed a warrior
aristocracy fighting frequent petty inter-city wars over land and rapidly ousting the monarchy. About this time the rise of a mercantile class (shown by the introduction of
coinage in about
680 BC) introduced class conflict into the larger cities. From
650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by
populist leaders called
tyrants (''turannoi''), a word which did not necessarily have the modern meaning of oppressive dictators.
By the
6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs:
Athens,
Sparta,
Corinth, and
Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Athens and Sparta developed a rivalry that dominated Greek politics for generations.
In Sparta, the
landed aristocracy retained their power, and the constitution of
Lycurgus (about
650 BC) entrenched their power and gave Sparta a permanent militarist regime under a dual monarchy. Sparta dominated the other cities of the
Peloponnese, with the sole exceptions of
Argus and
Achaia.
In Athens, by contrast, the monarchy was abolished in
683 BC, and the reforms of
Solon established a moderate system of aristocratic government. The aristocrats were followed by the tyranny of
Pisistratus and his sons, who made the city a great naval and commercial power. When the Pisistratids were overthrown,
Cleisthenes established the world's first
democracy (
500 BC), with power being held by an assembly of all the male citizens. But only a minority of the male inhabitants were citizens, excluding slaves, freedmen and non-Athenians.
Colonies
The
population grew beyond the capacity of its limited
arable land (according to
Mogens Herman Hansen, the population of Ancient Greece increased by a factor larger than ten during the period from 800 BC to 400 BC, increasing from a population of 800,000 to a total estimated population of 10 to 13 million).
[Population of the Greek city-states ] From about
750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the
Aegean coast of
Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by
Cyprus and the coasts of
Thrace, the
Sea of Marmara and south coast of the
Black Sea. Eventually Greek colonization reached as far north-east as present day
Ukraine and
Russia (
Taganrog). To the west the coasts of
Illyria,
Sicily and southern
Italy were settled, followed by the south coast of France,
Corsica, and even northeastern
Spain. Greek colonies were also founded in
Egypt and
Libya. Modern
Syracuse,
Naples,
Marseille and
Istanbul had their beginnings as the Greek colonies Syracusae ''(Συρακούσαι)'', Neapolis ''(Νεάπολις)'', Massalia ''(Μασσαλία)'' and
Byzantion ''(Βυζάντιον)''.
By the
6th century BC the Greek world had become a cultural and linguistic area much larger than the geographical area of present Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. The Greeks both at home and abroad organized themselves into independent communities, and the city (''
polis'') became the basic unit of Greek government.
In this period, huge economic development occurred in Greece and also her overseas colonies such as
Cyme (Aeolis),
Cyrene and
Alalia which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There also was a large improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from
800 BC to
300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population.
At its economic height, in the 4th century BC, ancient Greece was the most advanced economy in the world. According to some economic historians, it was one of the most advanced preindustrial economies. This is demonstrated by the average daily wage of the Greek worker, it was, in terms of wheat (about 12 kg), more than 3 times the average daily wage of the Romano-Egyptian worker during the Roman period (about 3.75 kg).
[Real Slave prices and the relative cost of slave labour in the Greco-Roman world]
5th century
In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant
Hippias, son of
Peisistratos.
Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by
Isagoras.
The
Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC), concluded by the
Peace of Callias resulted in the dominant position of
Athens in the
Delian League, which led to conflict with
Sparta and the
Peloponnesian League, resulting in the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC).
At
Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. The resumption of fighting brought the war party, led by
Alcibiades, back to power in Athens. In 415 BC Alcibiades persuaded the Athenian Assembly to launch a major
expedition against
Syracuse, a Peloponnesian ally in
Sicily, resulting in a complete disaster.
Sparta now challenged Athenian naval supremacy, and had found a brilliant military leader in
Lysander, who decisively defeated Athens at
Aegospotami (405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. Lysander abolished the democracy and appointed a council of thirty to govern Athens in its place.
4th century
Greece entered the 4th century under
Spartan hegemony. But by
395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy.
Athens,
Argos,
Thebes, and
Corinth, the latter two formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the
Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in
387 BC.
Then the Theban generals
Epaminondas and
Pelopidas won a decisive victory at
Leuctra (
371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of
Theban hegemony.
Sparta remained an important power and some cities continued to turn against her. The confederal framework was artificial, for a confederacy mustered cities that could never agree. This was the case with the cities of
Tegea and
Mantinea which reallied in the Arcardian confederacy. The Mantineans received the support of the Athenians and the Tegeans that of the Thebans. The Thebans prevailed, but this triumph was short-lived, for Epaminondas died in the battle. In the end, the Thebans renounced their policy of intervention in the Peloponnesus.
Xenophon thus ended his history of the Greek world in 362 BC.
Thebes sought to maintain its position until finally eclipsed by the rising power of
Macedon in
346 BC.
Under Philip II, (
359–
336 BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of the
Paionians,
Thracians, and
Illyrians. Macedon became more politically involved with the south-central city-states of Greece, but it also retained more archaic features like the palace-culture, first at Aegae (modern Vergina) then at
Pella, resembling
Mycenaean culture more than the classic city-states.
Philip's son
Alexander the Great (
356–
323 BC) managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central Greek city-states, but also to the
Persian empire, including
Egypt and lands as far east as the fringes of
India.
The classical period conventionally ends at the death of Alexander in 323 BC and the fragmentation of his empire, divided among the
Diadochi.
Hellenistic Greece
The Hellenistic period of
Greek lasts from 323 BC to the annexation of the Greek
peninsula and
islands by
Rome in
146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of
Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence.
During the Hellenistic period the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were
Alexandria and
Antioch, capitals of
Ptolemaic Egypt and
Seleucid Syria respectively. See
Hellenistic civilization for the history of Greek culture outside of Greece in this period.
The conquests of Alexander had a number of consequences for the Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks, and led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as what are now
Afghanistan and
Pakistan, where the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the
1st century BC.
3rd century
The
Seleucid Empire disintegrated gradually, torn apart by the wars of the
Diadochi 323-285 BC, by 247 BC giving way to
Parthia.
Antigonus II died in
239 BC. His death saw another revolt of the city-states of the
Achaean League, whose dominant figure was
Aratus of
Sicyon. Antigonus's son
Demetrius II died in
229 BC, leaving a child (Philip V) as king, with the general
Antigonus Doson as regent. The Achaeans, while nominally subject to Ptolemy, were in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Athens remained aloof from this conflict by common consent.
Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in
227 BC Sparta's king
Cleomenes III invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. Aratus preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied himself with Doson, who in
222 BC defeated the Spartans and annexed their city – the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a foreign power.
In
215 BC, Philip V formed an alliance with Rome's enemy
Carthage, which drew Rome directly into Greek affairs for the first time. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in
Asia Minor. The
First Macedonian War broke out in
212 BC, and ended inconclusively in
205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. Rome's ally Rhodes gained control of the Aegean islands.
2nd century
In
202 BC Rome defeated Carthage,and was free to turn her attention eastwards, urged on by her Greek allies, Rhodes and Pergamum. In
198 the
Second Macedonian War broke out for obscure reasons, but basically because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucids, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in
197 BC he was decisively defeated at the
Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul
Titus Quinctius Flamininus.
In
192 BC war broke out between Rome and the Seleucid ruler
Antiochus III, who was defeated at
Thermopylae in
191 BC. During the course of this war Roman troops crossed into Asia for the first time, where they defeated Antiochus again at
Magnesia on the Sipylum (
190 BC). Greece now lay across Rome's line of communications with the east, and Roman troops became a permanent presence. The Peace of Apamaea (
188 BC) left Rome in a dominant position throughout Greece.
When Philip V died in
179 BC he was succeeded by his son
Perseus, who like all the Macedonian kings dreamed of uniting the Greeks under Macedonian rule. Macedon was now too weak to achieve this objective, but Rome's ally
Eumenes II of
Pergamum persuaded Rome that Perseus was a threat to Rome's position.
In
168 BC the Romans sent
Lucius Aemilius Paullus to Greece, and at
Pydna the Macedonians were crushingly defeated. Perseus was captured and taken to Rome, the Macedonian kingdom was broken up into four smaller states. Under the leadership of an adventurer called
Andriscus, Macedon rebelled against Roman rule in
149 BC: as a result it was directly annexed the following year and became a
Roman province, the first of the Greek states to suffer this fate. Rome now demanded that the Achaean League, the last stronghold of Greek independence, be dissolved. The Achaeans refused and declared war on Rome. The Roman consul
Lucius Mummius advanced from Macedonia and defeated the Greeks at
Corinth, which was razed to the ground. In
146 BC the Greek peninsula, though not the islands, became a Roman protectorate. Roman taxes were imposed, except in Athens and Sparta, and all the cities had to accept rule by Rome's local allies. In
133 BC the last king of Pergamum died and left his kingdom to Rome: this brought most of the Aegean peninsula under direct Roman rule as part of the province of Asia.
Society
The distinguishing features of Ancient Greek society were the division between free and slave, the differing roles of men and women, the relative lack of status distinctions based on birth, and the importance of religion. The way of life of the Athenians was common in the Greek world compared to Sparta's special system. The citizens of ancient Greece were known for their artistic designs on pottery. Most artwork consisted of pornographic scenes, which was normal for the time.
Social Structure
Only free, land owning, native-born men could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a
city-state (later
Pericles introduced exceptions to the native-born restriction). In most city-states, unlike
Rome, social prominence did not allow special rights. For example, being born in a certain family generally brought no special privileges. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in the government. In
Athens, the population was divided into four social classes based on wealth. People could change classes if they made more money. In
Sparta, all male citizens were given the title of "equal" if they finished their education. However, Spartan kings, who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families.
Slaves had no power or status. They had the right to have a family and own property, however they had no political rights. By
600 BC chattel slavery had spread in
Greece. By the
5th century BC slaves made up one-third of the total population in some city-states. Slaves outside of Sparta almost never revolted because they were made up of too many nationalities and were too scattered to organize.
Most families owned slaves as household servants and labourers, and even poor families might have owned a few slaves. Owners were not allowed to beat or kill their slaves. Owners often promised to free slaves in the future to encourage slaves to work hard. Unlike in Rome, slaves who were freed did not become citizens. Instead, they were mixed into the population of ''
metics'', which included people from foreign countries or other city-states who were officially allowed to live in the state.
City-states legally owned slaves. These public slaves had a larger measure of independence than slaves owned by families, living on their own and performing specialized tasks. In Athens, public slaves were trained to look out for counterfeit coinage, while temple slaves acted as servants of the temple's deity.
Sparta had a special type of slaves called ''
helots''. Helots were Greek war captives owned by the state and assigned to families where they were forced to stay. Helots raised food and did household chores so that women could concentrate on raising strong children while men could devote their time to training as
hoplites. Their masters treated them harshly and helots often revolted.
Education
For most of Greek history, education was private, except in Sparta. During the
Hellenistic period, some city-states established public schools. Only wealthy families could afford a teacher. Boys learned how to read, write and quote literature. They also learned to sing and play one musical instrument and were trained as athletes for military service. They studied not for a job, but to become an effective citizen. Girls also learned to read, write and do simple
arithmetic so they could manage the household. They almost never received education after childhood.
Boys went to school at the age of seven, or went to the barracks, if they lived in
Sparta. The three types of teachings were: grammatistes for arithmetic, kitharistes for music and dancing, and paidotribes for sports.
Boys from wealthy families attending the private school lessons were taken care by a ''paidagogos'', a household slave selected for this task who accompanied the boy during the day. Classes were held in teachers' private houses and included reading, writing, mathematics, singing, and playing of the lyre and flute. When the boy became 12 years old the schooling started to include sports as wrestling, running, and throwing discus and javelin. In Athens some older youths attended academy for the finer disciplines such as culture, sciences, music, and the arts. The schooling ended at the age of 18, followed by military training in the army usually for one or two years.
[Angus Konstam: "Historical Atlas of Ancient Greece", pp. 94-95. Thalamus publishing, UK, 2003, ISBN 1-904668-16-x]
A small number of boys continued their education after childhood, as in the Spartan
agoge. A crucial part of a wealthy teenager's education was a mentorship with an elder, which in some places and times may have included
pederastic love. The teenager learned by watching his mentor talking about politics in the ''agora'', helping him perform his public duties, exercising with him in the gymnasium and attending symposia with him. The richest students continued their education by studying with famous teachers. Some of Athens' greatest such schools included the
Lyceum and the
Academy.
The education system of the wealthy ancient Greeks is also called
Paideia.
Culture
Literature
Alfred North Whitehead once claimed that all of philosophy is but a footnote to
Plato. To suggest that all of
Western literature is no more than a footnote to the writings of ancient Greece is an exaggeration, but it is nevertheless true that the
Greek world of thought was so far-ranging that there is scarcely an idea discussed today not already debated by the ancient writers.
Sciences
Art
The art of ancient Greece has exercised a huge influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the
Religion and mythology
Greek mythology consists of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their
gods and
heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their religious practices.
Notes
Bibliography