142-454: An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel , and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens , yet every Greek city had an acropolis of its own. Acropolises were used as religious centers and places of worship, forts, and places in which
284-546: A 'strongman' was often the best solution. Athens fell under a tyranny in the second half of the 6th century BC. When this tyranny was ended, the Athenians founded the world's first democracy as a radical solution to prevent the aristocracy regaining power. A citizens' assembly (the Ecclesia ), for the discussion of city policy, had existed since the reforms of Draco in 621 BC; all citizens were permitted to attend after
426-615: A Dorian colony on the southwest coast of Asia Minor ; following the literary tradition of the times he wrote in Ionic Greek , being one of the last authors to do so. He described the Persian Wars , giving a thumbnail account of the histories of the antagonists, Greeks and Persians. Herodotus gives a general account of the events termed "the Dorian Invasion", presenting them as transfers of population. Their original home
568-500: A coalition of 31 Greek city states, including Athens and Sparta, determined to resist the Persian invaders. At the same time, Greek Sicily was invaded by a Carthaginian force. In 480 BC, the first major battle of the invasion was fought at Thermopylae , where a small rearguard of Greeks, led by three hundred Spartans, held a crucial pass guarding the heart of Greece for several days; at the same time Gelon , tyrant of Syracuse, defeated
710-609: A council of elders (the Gerousia ) and magistrates specifically appointed to watch over the kings (the Ephors ). Only free, land-owning, native born men could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a city-state. In most city-states, unlike the situation in Rome , social prominence did not allow special rights. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in
852-528: A decisive victory, and in 447 lost Boeotia again. Athens and Sparta signed the Thirty Years' Peace in the winter of 446/5, ending the conflict. Despite the treaty, Athenian relations with Sparta declined again in the 430s, and in 431 BC the Peloponnesian War began. The first phase of the war saw a series of fruitless annual invasions of Attica by Sparta, while Athens successfully fought
994-572: A fragment of the poet, Tyrtaeus , that "Sparta is a divine gift granted by Zeus and Hera" to the Heracleidae. In another version, Tyndareus gives his kingdom to Heracles in gratitude for restoring him to the throne, but Heracles "asks the Spartan king to safeguard the gift until his descendants might claim it." Hall, therefore, proposes that the Dorians are the people of the gift. They assumed
1136-436: A group of city-states allied themselves to defend Greece, the vast majority of poleis remained neutral, and after the Persian defeat, the allies quickly returned to infighting. Thus, the major peculiarities of the ancient Greek political system were its fragmented nature (and that this does not particularly seem to have tribal origin), and the particular focus on urban centers within otherwise tiny states. The peculiarities of
1278-514: 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. Dorians The Dorians ( / ˈ d ɔːr i ə n z / ; Greek : Δωριεῖς , Dōrieîs , singular Δωριεύς , Dōrieús ) were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with
1420-462: A race course), and necropolis (cemetery). This acropolis was the highest point of fortification on the south edge at Halieis. There was a small open-air cult space, including an altar and monuments. The Ankara Acropolis, which was set in modern-day Turkey, is a historically prominent space that has changed over time through the urban development of the country from the Phrygian period. This acropolis
1562-683: A recent attempt to suggest that a comic confusion between the letter and the hand image may yet have been intended. Dorian social structure was characterized by a communal social structure and separation of the sexes. The lives of free men centered around military campaigns. When not abroad, men stayed in all-male residences focusing on military training until the age of 30, regardless of marital status. Dorian women had greater freedom and economic power than women of other Greek ethnicities. Unlike other Hellenic women, Dorian women were able to own property, manage their husbands' estate, and delegate many domestic tasks to slaves. Women in ancient Sparta possessed
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#17327765986161704-760: A result of Epaminondas ' liberation of Messenia from Spartan rule, the helot system there came to an end and the helots won their freedom. However, it did continue to persist in Laconia until the 2nd century BC. 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
1846-470: A rise to supremacy at the end of the Dark Age rather than during and after the fall of Mycenae. The Messenian population was reduced to serfdom . Only a few fragments of Tyrtaeus' five books of martial verse survive. His is the earliest mention of the three Dorian tribes: Pamphyli , Hylleis, Dymanes . He also says: For Cronus' Son Himself, Zeus the husband of fair-crowned Hera, hath given this city to
1988-642: A son of Heracles , but were defeated by the Achaeans. Under other leadership they managed to be victorious over the Achaeans and remain in the Peloponnesus, a mythic theme called "the return of the Heracleidae ." They had built ships at Naupactus in which to cross the Gulf of Corinth . This invasion is viewed by the tradition of Pausanias as a return of the Dorians to the Peloponnesus, apparently meaning
2130-523: A special type of slaves called helots . Helots were Messenians enslaved en masse during the Messenian Wars 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 revolted against their masters several times. In 370/69 BC, as
2272-722: A war with the Roman Republic in the late 3rd century. Although the First Macedonian War was inconclusive, the Romans, in typical fashion, continued to fight Macedon until it was completely absorbed into the Roman Republic (by 149 BC). In the east, the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BC, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Egypt until 30 BC when it too
2414-684: A year, the Thirty had been overthrown. The first half of the fourth century saw the major Greek states attempt to dominate the mainland; none were successful, and their resulting weakness led to a power vacuum which would eventually be filled by Macedon under Philip II and then Alexander the Great. In the immediate aftermath of the Peloponnesian war, Sparta attempted to extend their own power, leading Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes to join against them. Aiming to prevent any single Greek state gaining
2556-465: Is debated. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides , Xenophon , Demosthenes , Plato and Aristotle . Most were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than of many other cities. Their scope is further limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic and social history. The archaic period, lasting from approximately 800 to 500 BC, saw
2698-520: Is from the o-grade (either ō or o ) of Proto-Indo-European *deru- , "tree", which also gives the Homeric Δούρειος Ἵππος ( Doureios Hippos , "Wooden Horse"). This derivation has the advantage of naming the people after their wooded, mountainous country. A second popular derivation was given by the French linguist, Émile Boisacq, from the same root, but from Greek δόρυ ( doru ) 'spear-shaft' (which
2840-586: Is from the o-grade of Indo-European * deru , "solid," in the sense of wood. It is similar to an extended form, * dō-ro- , of *dō- , (give), as can be seen in the modern Greek imperative δώσε ( dose , "give [sing.]!") appearing in Greek as δῶρον ( dōron , "gift"). This is the path taken by Jonathan Hall , relying on elements taken from the myth of the Return of the Herakleidai. Hall cites the tradition, based on
2982-522: Is known from much more fragmentary documents such as annals, king lists, and pragmatic epigraphy . Herodotus is widely known as the "father of history": his Histories are eponymous of the entire field . Written between the 450s and 420s BC, Herodotus' work reaches about a century into the past, discussing 6th century BC historical figures such as Darius I of Persia , Cambyses II and Psamtik III , and alluding to some 8th century BC persons such as Candaules . The accuracy of Herodotus' works
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#17327765986163124-458: Is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Greece consisted of many smaller regions, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were prominent features of ancient Greece. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them. In the south lay the Peloponnese , consisting of
3266-565: Is not compatible with a Dorian invasion that brought Dorians to Crete only after the fall of the Mycenaean states. In the Odyssey , Odysseus and his relatives visit those states. Two solutions are possible, either the Odyssey is anachronistic or Dorians were on Crete in Mycenaean times. The uncertain nature of the Dorian invasion defers a definitive answer until more is known about it. Also,
3408-455: Is the Rock of Cashel . In Central Italy , many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as rocca of the commune. Other parts of the world have developed other names for the high citadel, or alcázar , which often have reinforced a naturally strong site. Because of this, many cultures have included acropolises in their societies, however, do not use
3550-454: Is the valedictory phrase uttered by Spartan mothers to their sons before sending them off to war: ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς ( ḕ tàn ḕ epì tâs , literally "either with it or on it": return alive with your shield or dead upon it) would have been ἢ τὴν ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς ( ḕ t ḕ n ḕ epì t ê s ) in the Attic - Ionic dialect of an Athenian mother. Tsakonian , a descendant of Doric Greek, is still spoken in some parts of
3692-479: Is unclear exactly how this change occurred. For instance, in Athens, the kingship had been reduced to a hereditary, lifelong chief magistracy ( archon ) by c. 1050 BC; by 753 BC this had become a decennial, elected archonship; and finally by 683 BC an annually elected archonship. Through each stage, more power would have been transferred to the aristocracy as a whole, and away from a single individual. Inevitably,
3834-604: The -eus suffix as very productive. One of its uses was to convert a toponym to an anthroponym; for example, Megareus, "Megarian", from Megara . A Dōrieus would be from Dōris, the only classical Greek state to serve as the basis for the name of the Dorians. The state was a small one in the mountains of west central Greece. However, classical Doris may not have been the same as Mycenaean Doris. A number of credible etymologies by noted scholars have been proposed. Julius Pokorny derives Δωριεύς, Dōrieus from δωρίς, dōris , "woodland" (which can also mean upland). The dōri- segment
3976-537: The Aeolians , Achaeans , and Ionians ). They are almost always referred to as just "the Dorians", as they are called in the earliest literary mention of them in the Odyssey , where they already can be found inhabiting the island of Crete . They were diverse in way of life and social organization, varying from the populous trade center of the city of Corinth , known for its ornate style in art and architecture, to
4118-710: The Archaic period , the Greek population grew beyond the capacity of the limited arable land of Greece proper, resulting in the large-scale establishment of colonies elsewhere: according to one estimate, the population of the widening area of Greek settlement increased roughly tenfold from 800 BC to 400 BC, from 800,000 to as many as 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 -10 million. This was not simply for trade, but also to found settlements. These Greek colonies were not, as Roman colonies were, dependent on their mother-city, but were independent city-states in their own right. Greeks settled outside of Greece in two distinct ways. The first
4260-699: The Battle of Aegospotami , and began to blockade Athens' harbour; driven by hunger, Athens sued for peace, agreeing to surrender their fleet and join the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League. Following the Athenian surrender, Sparta installed an oligarchic regime, the Thirty Tyrants , in Athens, one of a number of Spartan-backed oligarchies which rose to power after the Peloponnesian war. Spartan predominance did not last: after only
4402-576: The Delian League gradually transformed from a defensive alliance of Greek states into an Athenian empire, as Athens' growing naval power intimidated the other league states. Athens ended its campaigns against Persia in 450, after a disastrous defeat in Egypt in 454, and the death of Cimon in action against the Persians on Cyprus in 450. As the Athenian fight against the Persian empire waned, conflict grew between Athens and Sparta. Suspicious of
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4544-506: The Doric dialect disseminated among the Hellenes of northwest Greece, a highly-mountainous and somewhat-isolated region. The Dorian invasion is a modern historical concept attempting to account for: On the whole, none of the objectives has been met, but the investigations served to rule out various speculative hypotheses. Most scholars doubt that the Dorian invasion was the main cause of
4686-654: The Greco-Persian Wars to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian War . The unification of Greece by Macedon under Philip II and subsequent conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great spread Hellenistic civilization across the Middle East. The Hellenistic Period is considered to have ended in 30 BC, when
4828-740: The Paeonians due north, the Thracians to the northeast, and the Illyrians , with whom the Macedonians were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. Chalcidice was settled early on by southern Greek colonists and was considered part of the Greek world, while from the late 2nd millennium BC substantial Greek settlement also occurred on the eastern shores of the Aegean , in Anatolia . During
4970-639: The Parthenon of Athens. Politically, the Classical Period was dominated by Athens and the Delian League during the 5th century, but displaced by Spartan hegemony during the early 4th century BC, before power shifted to Thebes and the Boeotian League and finally to the League of Corinth led by Macedon . This period was shaped by the Greco-Persian Wars , the Peloponnesian War , and
5112-833: The Peloponnese , Crete , southwest Asia Minor , the southernmost islands of the Aegean Sea , and the various Dorian colonies of Magna Graecia in Southern Italy and Sicily . After the classical period, it was mainly replaced by the Attic dialect upon which the Koine or "common" Greek language of the Hellenistic period was based. The main characteristic of Doric was the preservation of Proto-Indo-European [aː] , long ⟨α⟩ , which in Attic-Ionic became [ɛː] , ⟨η⟩ . A famous example
5254-498: The Peloponnesian War . The degree to which fifth-century Hellenes self-identified as "Ionian" or "Dorian" has itself been disputed. At one extreme Édouard Will [ fr ] concludes that there was no true ethnic component in fifth-century Greek culture, in spite of anti-Dorian elements in Athenian propaganda. At the other extreme John Alty reinterprets the sources to conclude that ethnicity did motivate fifth-century actions. Moderns viewing these ethnic identifications through
5396-671: The Rise of Macedon . Following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period (323–146 BC), during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East from the death of Alexander until the Roman conquest. Roman Greece is usually counted from the Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC to the establishment of Byzantium by Constantine as
5538-688: The Spartan state and its illustrious individuals are detailed at great length in such authors as Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus . The Odyssey has one reference to the Dorians: There is a land called Crete , in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech, but their tongues are mixed. There dwell Achaeans , there great-hearted native Cretans , there Cydonians , and Dorians of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians . The reference
5680-630: The Thessalians into Boeotia and 20 years later "the Dorians and the Heraclids became masters of the Peloponnese." So the lines were drawn between the Dorians and the Aeolians (here Boeotians) with the Ionians (former Peloponnesians). Other than these few brief observations Thucydides names but few Dorians. He does make it clear that some Dorian states aligned or were forced to align with
5822-572: The Trojan War except to say that it was full of barbarians and that there was no distinction between barbarians and Greeks. The Hellenes came from Phthiotis . The whole country indulged in and suffered from piracy and was not settled. After the Trojan War, "Hellas was still engaged in removing and settling." Some 60 years after the Trojan War the Boeotians were driven out of Arne by
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5964-449: The poleis grouped themselves into leagues, membership of which was in a constant state of flux. Later in the Classical period, the leagues would become fewer and larger, be dominated by one city (particularly Athens , Sparta and Thebes ); and often poleis would be compelled to join under threat of war (or as part of a peace treaty). Even after Philip II of Macedon conquered the heartlands of ancient Greece, he did not attempt to annex
6106-464: The 146 BC conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. Macedonia became a Roman province while southern Greece came under the surveillance of Macedonia's prefect ; however, some Greek poleis managed to maintain a partial independence and avoid taxation. The Aegean Islands were added to this territory in 133 BC. Athens and other Greek cities revolted in 88 BC, and the peninsula was crushed by
6248-430: The 5th and 4th century BC literary tradition have been profoundly influenced by their own social politics. Also, according to E. N. Tigerstedt , nineteenth-century European admirers of virtues they considered "Dorian" identified themselves as " Laconophile " and found responsive parallels in the culture of their day as well; their biases contribute to the traditional modern interpretation of "Dorians". Accounts vary as to
6390-501: The Athenians while some Ionians went with the Lacedaemonians and that the motives for alignment were not always ethnic but were diverse. Among the Dorians was Lacedaemon , Corcyra , Corinth and Epidamnus , Leucadia , Ambracia , Potidaea , Rhodes , Cythera , Argos , Syracuse , Gela , Acragas (later Agrigentum), Acrae , Casmenae. He does explain with considerable dismay what happened to incite ethnic war after
6532-465: The Battle-Charge which are also called Enoplia or Songs-under-Arms". These were chants used to establish the timing of standard drills under arms. He stressed patriotism: For 'tis a fair thing for a good man to fall and die fighting in the van for his native land, ... let us fight with a will for this land, and die for our children and never spare our lives. Herodotus was from Halicarnassus ,
6674-583: The Carthaginian invasion at the Battle of Himera . The Persians were decisively defeated at sea by a primarily Athenian naval force at the Battle of Salamis , and on land in 479 BC at the Battle of Plataea . The alliance against Persia continued, initially led by the Spartan Pausanias but from 477 by Athens, and by 460 Persia had been driven out of the Aegean. During this long campaign,
6816-581: The Classical period. The acropolis was constructed in the fourth century BCE by the Hekatomnids that ultimately led to its seizure in 334 BCE by Alexander the Great . The acropolis contributed significantly to the overall development that took place during the Hellenistic empires. This acropolis was the earliest place of settlement, probably dating back to the third millennium BCE. During excavations that took place in 1989, ceramic items, terracotta figurines, coins, bone and stone objects were found that date to
6958-525: The Corinthian empire in northwest Greece and defended its own empire, despite a plague which killed the leading Athenian statesman Pericles . The war turned after Athenian victories led by Cleon at Pylos and Sphakteria , and Sparta sued for peace, but the Athenians rejected the proposal. The Athenian failure to regain control of Boeotia at Delium and Brasidas ' successes in northern Greece in 424 improved Sparta's position after Sphakteria. After
7100-601: The Dark Ages was the Archaic Period , beginning around the 8th century BC, which saw early developments in Greek culture and society leading to the Classical Period from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC until the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The Classical Period is characterized by a "classical" style, i.e. one which was considered exemplary by later observers, most famously in
7242-483: The Dorian islands, dotted the southern coasts of Sicily from Syracuse to Selinus. Also Taras was a Spartan colony. A man's name, Dōrieus , occurs in the Linear B tablets at Pylos , one of the regions later invaded and subjugated by the Dorians. Pylos tablet Fn867 records it in the dative case as do-ri-je-we , *Dōriēwei , a third- or consonant-declension noun with stem ending in w. An unattested nominative plural, *Dōriēwes , would have become Dōrieis by loss of
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#17327765986167384-402: The Dorians did not name themselves after Dorus until they had reached Peloponnesus. Herodotus does not explain the contradictions of the myth; for example, how Doris, located outside the Peloponnesus, acquired its name. However, his goal, as he relates in the beginning of the first book, is only to report what he had heard from his sources without judgement. In the myth, the Achaeans displaced from
7526-462: The Dorians to import his worship to Rhodes . In Greek historiography , the Dorians are mentioned by many authors. The chief classical authors to relate their origins are Herodotus , Thucydides and Pausanias . The most copious authors, however, lived in Hellenistic and Roman times, long after the main events. This apparent paradox does not necessarily discredit the later writers, who were relying on earlier works that did not survive. The customs of
7668-419: The Dorians' place of origin. One theory, widely believed in ancient times, is that they originated in the mountainous regions of Greece , such as Macedonia and Epirus , and obscure circumstances brought them south into the Peloponnese , to certain Aegean islands . The origin of the Dorians is a multifaceted concept. In modern scholarship, the term has often meant the location of the population disseminating
7810-410: The Dorians. Overseas were the islands of Rhodes , Cos , Nisyrus and the Anatolian cities of Cnidus , Halicarnassus , Phaselis and Calydna. Dorians also colonised Crete including founding of such towns as Lato , Dreros and Olous . The Cynurians were originally Ionians but had become Dorian under the influence of their Argive masters. Thucydides professes little of Greece before
7952-470: The Doric Greek dialect within a hypothetical Proto-Greek speaking population. The dialect is known from records of classical northwestern Greece, the Peloponnesus and Crete and some of the islands. The geographic and ethnic information found in the west's earliest known literary work, the Iliad , combined with the administrative records of the former Mycenaean states, prove to universal satisfaction that East Greek (Ionian) speakers were once dominant in
8094-399: The East Greek there with their own dialect. No records other than Mycenaean ones are known to have existed in the Bronze Age so a West Greek of that time and place can be neither proved nor disproved. West Greek speakers were in western Greece in classical times. Unlike the East Greeks, they are not associated with any evidence of displacement events. That provides circumstantial evidence that
8236-416: The Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks and led to a steady emigration 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 present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan , where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until
8378-460: The Greek colonies Syracusae ( Συράκουσαι ), Neapolis ( Νεάπολις ), Massalia ( Μασσαλία ) and Byzantion ( Βυζάντιον ). These colonies played an important role in the spread of Greek influence throughout Europe and also aided in the establishment of long-distance trading networks between the Greek city-states, boosting the economy of ancient Greece . Ancient Greece consisted of several hundred relatively independent city-states ( poleis ). This
8520-470: The Greek colony Sybaris in southern Italy, its allies, and the Serdaioi. In 499 BC, the Ionian city states under Persian rule rebelled against their Persian-supported tyrant rulers. Supported by troops sent from Athens and Eretria , they advanced as far as Sardis and burnt the city before being driven back by a Persian counterattack. The revolt continued until 494, when the rebelling Ionians were defeated. Darius did not forget that Athens had assisted
8662-420: The Greek system are further evidenced by the colonies that they set up throughout the Mediterranean , which, though they might count a certain Greek polis as their 'mother' (and remain sympathetic to her), were completely independent of the founding city. Inevitably smaller poleis might be dominated by larger neighbors, but conquest or direct rule by another city-state appears to have been quite rare. Instead
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#17327765986168804-660: 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 northeast as present-day Ukraine and Russia ( Taganrog ). To the west the coasts of Illyria , Southern Italy (called " Magna Graecia ") were settled, followed by Southern France , Corsica , and even eastern Spain . Greek colonies were also founded in Egypt and Libya . Modern Syracuse , Naples , Marseille and Istanbul had their beginnings as
8946-423: The Greeks were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to extensively categorise the city-states by tribe. Yet, although these higher-level relationships existed, they seem to have rarely had a major role in Greek politics. The independence of the poleis was fiercely defended; unification was something rarely contemplated by the ancient Greeks. Even when, during the second Persian invasion of Greece,
9088-418: The Heracleidae enlisted the help of their Dorian neighbors. Hall does not address the problem of the Dorians not calling Lacedaemon Doris, but assigning that name to some less holy and remoter land. Similarly, he does not mention the Dorian servant at Pylos, whose sacred gift, if such it was, was still being ruled by the Achaean Atreid family at Lacedaemon. A minor, and perhaps regrettably forgotten, episode in
9230-420: The Ionian revolt, and in 490 he assembled an armada to retaliate. Though heavily outnumbered, the Athenians—supported by their Plataean allies—defeated the Persian hordes at the Battle of Marathon , and the Persian fleet turned tail. Ten years later, a second invasion was launched by Darius' son Xerxes . The city-states of northern and central Greece submitted to the Persian forces without resistance, but
9372-430: The League of Corinth following the death of Philip, Alexander began his campaign against Persia in 334 BC. He conquered Persia, defeating Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, and after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC proclaimed himself king of Asia. From 329 BC he led expeditions to Bactria and then India; further plans to invade Arabia and North Africa were halted by his death in 323 BC. The period from
9514-406: The Mediterranean region is commonly considered to have begun in the 8th century BC (around the time of the earliest recorded poetry of Homer) and ended in the 6th century AD. Classical antiquity in Greece was preceded by the Greek Dark Ages ( c. 1200 – c. 800 BC ), archaeologically characterised by the protogeometric and geometric styles of designs on pottery. Following
9656-428: The Messenian town of Dorium is mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships . If its name comes from Dorians, it would imply there were settlements of the latter in Messenia during that time as well. Tyrtaeus , a Spartan poet, became advisor of the Lacedaemonians in their mid-7th-century war to suppress a rebellion of the Messenians . The latter were a remnant of the Achaeans conquered "two generations before", which suggests
9798-404: The Pelasgians used to speak I am not able with certainty to say. But if one must pronounce judging by those that still remain of the Pelasgians who dwelt in the city of Creston above the Tyrsenians, and who were once neighbours of the race now called Dorian, dwelling then in the land which is now called Thessaliotis, and also by those that remain of the Pelasgians who settled at Plakia and Skylake in
9940-407: The Peloponnesus but suffered a setback there and were replaced at least in official circles by West Greek (Doric) speakers. An historical event is associated with the overthrow, called anciently the Return of the Heracleidai and by moderns the Dorian Invasion . This theory of a return or invasion presupposes that West Greek speakers resided in northwest Greece but overran the Peloponnesus replacing
10082-422: The Peloponnesus gathered at Athens under a leader Ion and became identified as "Ionians". Herodotus' list of Dorian states is as follows. From northeastern Greece were Phthia , Histiaea and Macedon . In central Greece were Doris (the former Dryopia) and in the south Peloponnesus , specifically the states of Lacedaemon , Corinth , Sicyon , Epidaurus and Troezen . Hermione was not Dorian but had joined
10224-666: The Roman Empire and was known as "the Greece of Greece," as coined by an unknown poet. Although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period . The Tepecik Acropolis at Patara served as a harbor to nearby communities and naval forces, such as Antigonos I Monopthalmos and Demetrios Poliorketes , and combined land and sea. Its fortification wall and Bastion date back to
10366-624: The Roman general Sulla . The Roman civil wars devastated the land even further, until Augustus organized the peninsula as the province of Achaea in 27 BC. Greece was a key eastern province of the Roman Empire, as the Roman culture had long been in fact Greco-Roman . The Greek language served as a lingua franca in the East and in Italy , and many Greek intellectuals such as Galen would perform most of their work in Rome . The territory of Greece
10508-579: The ancient Greeks did not think in terms of race . Most families owned slaves as household servants and laborers, 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, freedmen 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
10650-560: The capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD. Finally, Late Antiquity refers to the period of Christianization during the later 4th to early 6th centuries AD, consummated by the closure of the Academy of Athens by Justinian I in 529. The historical period of ancient Greece is unique in world history as the first period attested directly in comprehensive, narrative historiography , while earlier ancient history or protohistory
10792-666: The center, while in the east lay Boeotia , Attica , and Megaris . Northeast lay Thessaly , while Epirus lay to the northwest. Epirus stretched from the Ambracian Gulf in the south to the Ceraunian Mountains and the Aoos river in the north, and consisted of Chaonia (north), Molossia (center), and Thesprotia (south). In the northeast corner was Macedonia , originally consisting Lower Macedonia and its regions, such as Elimeia , Pieria , and Orestis . Around
10934-848: The central complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities , including Tikal and Copán . Acropolis is also the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. It is primarily associated with the Greek cities of Athens , Argos (with Larisa ), Thebes (with Cadmea ), Corinth (with its Acrocorinth ), and Rhodes (with its Acropolis of Lindos ). It may also be applied generically to all such citadels including Rome, Carthage , Jerusalem , Celtic Bratislava , Asia Minor , or Castle Rock in Edinburgh . An example in Ireland
11076-403: The children of Heracles, with whom we came into the wide isle of Pelops from windy Erineus. Erineus was a village of Doris. He helped to establish the Spartan constitution, giving the kings and elders, among other powers, the power to dismiss the assembly. He established a rigorous military training program for the young including songs and poems he wrote himself, such as the "Embateria or Songs of
11218-482: The city of La Blanca's rulers. Its main period of usage was during the Classical period of 600 AD to 850 AD, as the city developed as a commercial place of trade among a number of nearby settlements. The Mayan Acropolis site in Guatemala included a burial site and vaulted tombs of the highest status royal. This funerary structure was integrated into this sacred landscape, and illustrated the prosperity of power between
11360-658: The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. The source of the West Greek speakers in the Peloponnese remains unattested by any solid evidence. Though most of the Dorians settled in the Peloponnese, they also settled on Rhodes and Sicily and in what is now Southern Italy. In Asia Minor existed the Dorian Hexapolis (the six great Dorian cities): Halikarnassos (Halicarnassus) and Knidos (Cnidus) in Asia Minor , Kos , and Lindos , Kameiros , and Ialyssos on
11502-583: The concentration of educational institutions in the area, including Columbia University and its affiliates, Barnard College , Teachers College , Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America ; Manhattan School of Music ; Bank Street College of Education ; and New York Theological Seminary . The analogy is also aided by the neoclassical architecture of the Columbia University campus, which
11644-455: The course of the archaic period. Already in the seventh century, the right of all citizen men to attend the assembly appears to have been established. After a failed coup led by Cylon of Athens around 636 BC, Draco was appointed to establish a code of laws in 621. This failed to reduce the political tension between the poor and the elites, and in 594 Solon was given the authority to enact another set of reforms, which attempted to balance
11786-473: The course of the eighth and seventh century. According to Spartan tradition, this constitution was established by the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus . Over the course of the first and second Messenian wars , Sparta subjugated the neighbouring region of Messenia , enserfing the population. In the sixth century, Greek city-states began to develop formal relationships with one another, where previously individual rulers had relied on personal relationships with
11928-574: The culmination of political and social developments which had begun in the Greek dark age, with the polis (city-state) becoming the most important unit of political organisation in Greece. The absence of powerful states in Greece after the collapse of Mycenaean power, and the geography of Greece, where many settlements were separated from their neighbours by mountainous terrain, encouraged the development of small independent city-states. Several Greek states saw tyrants rise to power in this period, most famously at Corinth from 657 BC. The period also saw
12070-461: The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC until the death of Cleopatra , the last Macedonian ruler of Egypt, is known as the Hellenistic period. In the early part of this period, a new form of kingship developed based on Macedonian and Near Eastern traditions. The first Hellenistic kings were previously Alexander's generals, and took power in the period following his death, though they were not part of existing royal lineages and lacked historic claims to
12212-423: The deaths of Cleon and Brasidas, the strongest proponents of war on each side, a peace treaty was negoitiated in 421 by the Athenian general Nicias . The peace did not last, however. In 418 BC allied forces of Athens and Argos were defeated by Sparta at Mantinea . In 415 Athens launched an ambitious naval expedition to dominate Sicily; the expedition ended in disaster at the harbor of Syracuse , with almost
12354-619: The dominance that would allow it to challenge Persia, the Persian king initially joined the alliance against Sparta, before imposing the Peace of Antalcidas ("King's Peace") which restored Persia's control over the Anatolian Greeks. By 371 BC, Thebes was in the ascendancy, defeating Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra , killing the Spartan king Cleombrotus I , and invading Laconia. Further Theban successes against Sparta in 369 led to Messenia gaining independence; Sparta never recovered from
12496-409: The domination of politics and concomitant aggregation of wealth by small groups of families was apt to cause social unrest in many poleis . In many cities a tyrant (not in the modern sense of repressive autocracies), would at some point seize control and govern according to their own will; often a populist agenda would help sustain them in power. In a system wracked with class conflict , government by
12638-726: The east to the Indian king Chandragupta Maurya in exchange for war elephants, and later lost large parts of Persia to the Parthian Empire . By the mid-third century, the kingdoms of Alexander's successors was mostly stable, though there continued to be disputes over border areas. The great capitals of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Antioch in the Seleucid Empire . The conquests of Alexander had numerous consequences for
12780-492: The elites of other cities. Towards the end of the archaic period, Sparta began to build a series of alliances, the Peloponnesian League , with cities including Corinth , Elis , and Megara , isolating Messenia and reinforcing Sparta's position against Argos , the other major power in the Peloponnese. Other alliances in the sixth century included those between Elis and Heraea in the Peloponnese; and between
12922-619: The end of the first century BC. The city-states within Greece formed themselves into two leagues; the Achaean League (including Corinth and Argos) and the Aetolian League (including Sparta and Athens). For much of the period until the Roman conquest, these leagues were at war, often participating in the conflicts between the Diadochi (the successor states to Alexander's empire). The Antigonid Kingdom became involved in
13064-609: The entire army killed, and the ships destroyed. Soon after the Athenian defeat in Syracuse, Athens' Ionian allies began to rebel against the Delian league, while Persia began to once again involve itself in Greek affairs on the Spartan side. Initially the Athenian position continued relatively strong, with important victories at Cyzicus in 410 and Arginusae in 406. However, in 405 the Spartan Lysander defeated Athens in
13206-666: The era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period. Three centuries after the decline of Mycenaean Greece during the Bronze Age Collapse , 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
13348-540: The exact borders of the Hellenistic kingdoms were not settled. Antigonus attempted to expand his territory by attacking the other successor kingdoms until they joined against him, and he was killed at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. His son Demetrius spent many years in Seleucid captivity, and his son, Antigonus II , only reclaimed the Macedonian throne around 276. Meanwhile, the Seleucid kingdom gave up territory in
13490-532: The founding of Greek colonies around the Mediterranean, with Euboean settlements at Al-Mina in the east as early as 800 BC, and Ischia in the west by 775. Increasing contact with non-Greek peoples in this period, especially in the Near East, inspired developments in art and architecture, the adoption of coinage, and the development of the Greek alphabet. Athens developed its democratic system over
13632-457: The fourth century BCE. The fortification wall and bastion that are built at this acropolis uses a style of masonry, commonly known as the Greek word ἔμπλεκτον (meaning "woven"). This style of masonry was likely used for weight-bearing purposes. The Acropolis at Halieis dates back to the Neolithic and Classical periods. It included a fortified wall, sanctuary of Apollo (two temples, an altar,
13774-576: 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 called homoioi , meaning "peers". However, Spartan kings, who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families. Women in Ancient Greece appear to have primarily performed domestic tasks, managed households, and borne and reared children. Slaves had no power or status. Slaves had
13916-417: The greatest agency and economic power, likely due to the prolonged absences of men during military campaigns. Dorian women wore the peplos , which was once common to all Hellenes. This tunic was pinned at the shoulders by brooches and had slit skirts which bared the thighs and permitted more freedom of movement than the voluminous Ionian chiton (costume) . The Doric dialect was spoken in northwest Greece,
14058-579: The growth of the power of Athens and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon...." In the Platonic work Laws is mentioned that the Achaeans who fought in the Trojan War , on their return from Troy were driven out from their homes and cities by the young residents, so they migrated under a leader named Dorieus and hence they were renamed "Dorians". Now during this period of ten years, while
14200-425: The history of scholarship was the attempt to emphasize the etymology of Doron with the meaning of 'hand'. This in turn was connected to an interpretation of the famous lambda on Spartan shields, which was to rather stand for a hand with outstanding thumb than the initial letter of Lacedaimon. Given the origin of the Spartan shield lambda legend, however, in a fragment by Eupolis , an Athenian comic poet, there has been
14342-600: The increasing Athenian power funded by the Delian League, Sparta offered aid to reluctant members of the League to rebel against Athenian domination. These tensions were exacerbated in 462 BC when Athens sent a force to aid Sparta in overcoming a helot revolt, but this aid was rejected by the Spartans. In the 450s, Athens took control of Boeotia, and won victories over Aegina and Corinth. However, Athens failed to win
14484-597: The island of Rhodes. The six cities would later become rivals with the Ionian cities of Asia Minor. The Dorians also settled Crete . The origin traditions remained strong into classical times: Thucydides saw the Peloponnesian War in part as "Ionians fighting against Dorians" and reported the tradition that the Syracusans in Sicily were of Dorian descent. Other such "Dorian" colonies, originally from Corinth, Megara, and
14626-536: The isolationist, military state of Sparta ; and yet, all Hellenes knew which localities were Dorian and which were not. Dorian states at war could more likely, but not always, count on the assistance of other Dorian states. Dorians were distinguished by the Doric Greek dialect and by characteristic social and historical traditions. In the 5th century BC, Dorians and Ionians were the two most politically important Greek ethnē , whose ultimate clash resulted in
14768-591: The last Hellenistic kingdom, Ptolemaic Egypt , was annexed by the Roman Republic . 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. Classical antiquity in
14910-514: The loss of Messenia's fertile land and the helot workforce it provided. The rising power of Thebes led Sparta and Athens to join forces; in 362 they were defeated by Thebes at the Battle of Mantinea . In the aftermath of Mantinea, none of the major Greek states were able to dominate. Though Thebes had won the battle, their general Epaminondas was killed, and they spent the following decades embroiled in wars with their neighbours; Athens, meanwhile, saw its second naval alliance, formed in 377, collapse in
15052-495: The mid-350s. The power vacuum in Greece after the Battle of Mantinea was filled by Macedon, under Philip II . In 338 BC, he defeated a Greek alliance at the Battle of Chaeronea , and subsequently formed the League of Corinth . Philip planned to lead the League to invade Persia, but was murdered in 336 BC. His son Alexander the Great was left to fulfil his father's ambitions. After campaigns against Macedon's western and northern enemies, and those Greek states that had broken from
15194-670: The most commonly-known, Acropolis of Athens , as well as the Tepecik Acropolis at Patara , Ankara Acropolis, Acropolis of La Blanca , Acropolis at the Maya Site in Guatemala, and the Acropolis at Halieis . The most famous example is the Athenian Acropolis, which is a collection of structures featuring a citadel on the highest part of land in ancient (and modern-day) Athens, Greece. Many notable structures at
15336-405: The name on taking possession of Lacedaemon. Doris was subsequently named after them. Hall makes comparisons of Spartans to Hebrews as a chosen people maintaining a covenant with God and being assigned a Holy Land. To arrive at this conclusion, Hall relies on Herodotus' version of the myth (see below) that the Hellenes under Dorus did not take his name until reaching the Peloponnesus. In other versions
15478-660: The one never migrated from its place in any direction, while the other was very exceedingly given to wanderings; for in the reign of Deucalion this race dwelt in Pthiotis, and in the time of Doros the son of Hellen in the land lying below Ossa and Olympos, which is called Histiaiotis; and when it was driven from Histiaiotis by the sons of Cadmos, it dwelt in Pindos and was called Makednian; and thence it moved afterwards to Dryopis, and from Dryopis it came finally to Peloponnesus, and began to be called Dorian. 1.57.1-3 What language however
15620-506: The people of Creston do not speak the same language with any of those who dwell about them, nor yet do the people of Phakia, but they speak the same language one as the other: and by this it is proved that they still keep unchanged the form of language which they brought with them when they migrated to these places. 1.58 As for the Hellenic race, it has used ever the same language, as I clearly perceive, since it first took its rise; but since
15762-413: The period. An acropolis is defined by the Greek definition of ἀκρόπολις , akropolis ; from akros ( άκρος ) or akron ( άκρον ) meaning “highest; edge; extremity”, and polis ( πόλις ) meaning “city.” The plural of acropolis ( ακρόπολη ) is acropolises , also commonly as acropoleis and acropoles , and ακροπόλεις in Greek. The term acropolis is also used to describe
15904-410: The power of the rich and the poor. In the middle of the sixth century, Pisistratus established himself as a tyrant, and after his death in 527 his son Hippias inherited his position; by the end of the sixth century he had been overthrown and Cleisthenes carried out further democratising reforms. In Sparta, a political system with two kings, a council of elders , and five ephors developed over
16046-617: The reforms of Solon (early 6th century), but the poorest citizens could not address the assembly or run for office. With the establishment of the democracy, the assembly became the de jure mechanism of government; all citizens had equal privileges in the assembly. However, non-citizens, such as metics (foreigners living in Athens) or slaves , had no political rights at all. After the rise of democracy in Athens, other city-states founded democracies. However, many retained more traditional forms of government. As so often in other matters, Sparta
16188-686: The region of the Hellespont, who before that had been settlers with the Athenians, and of the natives of the various other towns which are really Pelasgian, though they have lost the name,—if one must pronounce judging by these, the Pelasgians used to speak a Barbarian language. If therefore all the Pelasgian race was such as these, then the Attic race, being Pelasgian, at the same time when it changed and became Hellenic, unlearnt also its language. For
16330-420: The regions of Laconia (southeast), Messenia (southwest), Elis (west), Achaia (north), Korinthia (northeast), Argolis (east), and Arcadia (center). These names survive to the present day as regional units of modern Greece , though with somewhat different boundaries. Mainland Greece to the north, nowadays known as Central Greece , consisted of Aetolia and Acarnania in the west, Locris , Doris , and Phocis in
16472-518: The right to have a family and own property, subject to their master's goodwill and permission, but 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. Between 40–80% of the population of Classical Athens were slaves. Slaves outside of Sparta almost never revolted because they were made up of too many nationalities and were too scattered to organize. However, unlike later Western culture ,
16614-470: The royal and high-status resided. Acropolises became the nuclei of large cities of classical ancient times, and served as important centers of a community. Some well-known acropolises have become the centers of tourism in present-day, and, especially, the Acropolis of Athens has been a revolutionary center for the studies of ancient Greece since the Mycenaean period. Many of them have become a source of revenue for Greece, and represent some great technology during
16756-485: The royal figures of Pedras Negras in Guatemala. Acropolises today have become the epicenters of tourism and attraction sites in many modern-day Greek cities. The Athenian Acropolis, in particular, is the most famous, and has the best vantage point in Athens, Greece. Today, tourists can purchase tickets to visit the Athenian Acropolis, including walking, sightseeing, and bus tours, as well as a classic Greek dinner. Because of its classical Hellenistic and Greco-Roman style,
16898-558: The ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano's Great Stone Church in California, United States has been called an American Acropolis. The civilization developed its religious, educational, and cultural aspects of the acropolis, and is used today as a location that holds events, such as operas. The neighborhood of Morningside Heights in New York City is commonly referred to as the "Academic Acropolis" due to its high elevation and
17040-436: The same name for them. The acropolis of a city was used in many ways, with regards to ancient time and through references. Because an acropolis was built at the highest part of a city, it served as a highly functional form of protection, a fortress, and was as well as a home to the royal of a city and a centre for religion through the worshipping of different gods. There have been many classical and ancient acropolises, including
17182-410: The siege lasted, the affairs of each of the besiegers at home suffered much owing to the seditious conduct of the young men. For when the soldiers returned to their own cities and homes, these young people did not receive them fittingly and justly, but in such a way that there ensued a vast number of cases of death, slaughter, and exile. So they, being again driven out, migrated by sea; and because Dorieus
17324-524: The site were constructed in the 5th century BCE, including the Propylaea , Erechtheion , and the Temple of Athena. The Temple is also commonly known as the Parthenon , which is derived from the divine Athena Parthenos. There were often dances, music and plays held at the acropolis, which it served as a community centre for the city of Athens. It became a prime tourist destination by the 2nd century AD during
17466-600: The southern Argolid coast of the Peloponnese , in the modern prefecture of Arcadia . Culturally, in addition to their Doric dialect of Greek, Doric colonies retained their characteristic Doric calendar that revolved round a cycle of festivals, the Hyacinthia and the Carneia being especially important. The Dorian mode in music also was attributed to Doric societies and was associated by classical writers with martial qualities. The Doric order of architecture in
17608-448: 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 and Scythian slaves were employed in Athens as a police force corralling citizens to political functions. Sparta had
17750-695: The territories they controlled. The most important of these rulers in the decades after Alexander's death were Antigonus I and his son Demetrius in Macedonia and the rest of Greece, Ptolemy in Egypt, and Seleucus I in Syria and the former Persian empire; smaller Hellenistic kingdoms included the Attalids in Anatolia and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom . In the early part of the Hellenistic period,
17892-515: The territory or unify it into a new province, but compelled most of the poleis to join his own Corinthian League . Initially many Greek city-states seem to have been petty kingdoms; there was often a city official carrying some residual, ceremonial functions of the king ( basileus ), e.g., the archon basileus in Athens. However, by the Archaic period and the first historical consciousness, most had already become aristocratic oligarchies . It
18034-626: The time of Alexander I of Macedon , the Argead kings of Macedon started to expand into Upper Macedonia , lands inhabited by independent Macedonian tribes like the Lyncestae , Orestae and the Elimiotae and to the west, beyond the Axius river , into Eordaia , Bottiaea , Mygdonia , and Almopia , regions settled by Thracian tribes. To the north of Macedonia lay various non-Greek peoples such as
18176-404: The time when it parted off feeble at first from the Pelasgian race, setting forth from a small beginning it has increased to that great number of races which we see, and chiefly because many Barbarian races have been added to it besides. Moreover it is true, as I think, of the Pelasgian race also, that so far as it remained Barbarian it never made any great increase. Thus, according to Herodotus,
18318-581: The tradition inherited by Vitruvius included the Doric column, noted for its simplicity and strength. The Dorians seem to have offered the central mainland cultus for Helios . The scattering of cults of the sun god in Sicyon , Argos , Ermioni , Epidaurus and Laconia , and his holy livestock flocks at Taenarum , seem to suggest that the deity was considerably important in Dorian religion, compared to other parts of ancient Greece. Additionally, it may have been
18460-438: The unity between the Greek states during the Battle of Thermopylae . The Congress of Corinth, formed prior to it, "split into two sections." Athens headed one and Lacedaemon the other: For a short time the league held together, till the Lacedaemonians and Athenians quarreled, and made war upon each other with their allies, a duel into which all the Hellenes sooner or later were drawn. He adds: "the real cause I consider to be ...
18602-409: The w and contraction. The tablet records the grain rations issued to the servants of "religious dignitaries" celebrating a religious festival of Potnia , the mother goddess. The nominative singular, Dōrieus , remained the same in the classical period. Many Linear B names of servants were formed from their home territory or the places where they came into Mycenaean ownership. Carl Darling Buck sees
18744-667: The west part of the structure (the Erechtheion), as well as the Parthenon itself. Most excavations have been able to provide archaeologists with samples of pottery, ceramics, and vessels. The excavation of the Acropolis of Halieis produced remains that provided context that dated the Acropolis at Halieis from the Final Neolithic period through the first Early Helladic period. Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( Ancient Greek : Ἑλλάς , romanized : Hellás )
18886-558: 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. Prior to the Roman period , most of these regions were officially unified once under the Kingdom of Macedon from 338 to 323 BC. In Western history ,
19028-539: Was a notable exception to the rest of Greece, ruled through the whole period by not one, but two hereditary monarchs. This was a form of diarchy . The Kings of Sparta belonged to the Agiads and the Eurypontids, descendants respectively of Eurysthenes and Procles . Both dynasties' founders were believed to be twin sons of Aristodemus , a Heraclid ruler. However, the powers of these kings were held in check by both
19170-460: Was a situation unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. Undoubtedly, the geography of Greece —divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains, and rivers—contributed to the fragmentary nature of ancient Greece. On the one hand, the ancient Greeks had no doubt that they were "one people"; they had the same religion , same basic culture, and same language. Furthermore,
19312-752: Was conquered by the Romans. The Aetolian league grew wary of Roman involvement in Greece, and sided with the Seleucids in the Roman–Seleucid War ; when the Romans were victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic. Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and Macedon, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romans in 146 BC, bringing Greek independence to an end. The Greek peninsula came under Roman rule during
19454-419: Was designed by McKim, Mead & White in the early 20th century. Much of the modern-day uses of acropolises have been discovered through excavations that have developed over the course of many years. For example, the Athenian Acropolis includes a Great Temple that holds the Parthenon, a specific space for ancient worship. Through today's findings and research, the Parthenon treasury is able to be recognized as
19596-576: Was in Thessaly , central Greece. He goes on to expand in mythological terms, giving some of the geographic details of the myth: 1.56.2-3 And inquiring he found that the Lacedemonians and the Athenians had the pre-eminence, the first of the Dorian and the others of the Ionian race. For these were the most eminent races in ancient time, the second being a Pelasgian and the first a Hellenic race: and
19738-417: Was in permanent settlements founded by Greeks, which formed as independent poleis. The second form was in what historians refer to as emporia ; trading posts which were occupied by both Greeks and non-Greeks and which were primarily concerned with the manufacture and sale of goods. Examples of this latter type of settlement are found at Al Mina in the east and Pithekoussai in the west. From about 750 BC
19880-412: Was made of wood); i.e., "the people of the spear" or "spearmen." In this case the country would be named after the people, as in Saxony from the Saxons. However, R. S. P. Beekes doubted the validity of this derivation and asserted that no good etymology exists. It sometimes happens that different derivations of an Indo-European word exploit similar-sounding Indo-European roots. Greek doru , "lance,"
20022-417: Was the man who then banded together the exiles, they got the new name of "Dorians", instead of "Achaeans". But as to all the events that follow this, you Lacedaemonians relate them all fully in your traditions. The Description of Greece by Pausanias relates that the Achaeans were driven from their lands by Dorians coming from Oeta , a mountainous region bordering on Thessaly . They were led by Hyllus ,
20164-410: Was well known as a spot for holy worshipping, and was symbolic of the time. It has also been a place that has historically recognized the legislative changes that Turkey has faced. The Acropolis of La Blanca was created in Guatemala as a small ancient Maya settlement and archaeological site that is located adjacent to the Salsipuedes River. This acropolis developed as a place of residence for
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