Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece, known in its own language as Hellás, was a civilization that stretched from the 12th–9th centuries BC (the Greek Dark Ages) until around 600 AD, when classical antiquity ended. It was not a single country but a loose network of culturally and linguistically similar city-states and regions, mostly clustered around the northeastern Mediterranean. Before the Romans took over, this area was politically unified only once—under the Kingdom of Macedon, from 338 to 323 BC. The classical era directly preceded the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period in Western history.

Scholars trace the start of Ancient Greece to Mycenaean Greece, which collapsed around 1100 BC during the Bronze Age collapse. About three centuries later, in the 8th century BC, Greek city-states—called *poleis*—began to emerge, kicking off the Archaic period and a wave of Greek colonization across the Mediterranean Basin. Next came the Classical period, a time of great intellectual growth that ran from the Greco-Persian Wars to Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC. This era included Athens’ Golden Age, the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, brief periods of Spartan and Theban dominance, the formation of the Hellenic league under Philip II of Macedon, and Alexander’s conquest of Persia’s Achaemenid Empire. Alexander’s campaigns spread Greek culture into northern Africa and western Asia, launching the Hellenistic period, which ended around 30 BC when Rome annexed the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt, based in Alexandria.

Classical Greek culture—especially its philosophy—deeply influenced Ancient Rome, which then spread those ideas across the Mediterranean and much of Europe. Because of this, Classical Greece is often seen as the cradle of Western civilization, the foundational culture that gave the modern West many of its core concepts in politics, philosophy, science, and art.

**Chronology**

Classical antiquity in the Mediterranean is usually dated from the 8th century BC (around the time of Homer’s earliest recorded poetry) to the 6th century AD. In Greece, it was preceded by the Greek Dark Ages (roughly 1200–800 BC), a period marked archaeologically by protogeometric and geometric pottery designs. The Dark Ages gave way to the Archaic period around the 8th century BC, which saw early cultural and social developments that led into the Classical period—from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC until Alexander’s death in 323 BC. The Classical period is known for a “classical” style considered exemplary by later observers, most famously seen in Athens’ Parthenon. Politically, the 5th century BC was dominated by Athens and the Delian League, then by Spartan hegemony in the early 4th century BC, followed by Thebes and the Boeotian League, and finally the League of Corinth under Macedon. Key events included the Greco-Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, and the Rise of Macedon.

After the Classical period came the Hellenistic period (323–146 BC), when Greek culture and power expanded into the Near East from Alexander’s death until the Roman conquest. Roman Greece is typically counted from Rome’s victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC to Constantine’s establishment of Byzantium as the Roman Empire’s capital in 330 AD. Late Antiquity followed, covering the Christianization of the later 4th to early 6th centuries AD, which ended with Emperor Justinian I closing the Academy of Athens in 529.

**Historiography**

Ancient Greece is unique in world history as the first period directly recorded in comprehensive, narrative historiography. Earlier ancient history or protohistory relies on more fragmentary sources like annals, king lists, and pragmatic inscriptions. Herodotus is widely called the “father of history”; his *Histories* gave the entire field its name. Written between the 450s and 420s BC, his work reaches back about a century, discussing 6th-century BC figures like Darius I of Persia, Cambyses II, and Psamtik III, and even alluding to some 8th-century BC people such as Candaules. Scholars debate the accuracy of Herodotus’ accounts.

Herodotus was followed by writers like Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, and Aristotle. Most were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which explains why far more is known about Athens’ history and politics than about many other Greek cities. Their focus was also limited to political, military, and diplomatic history, largely ignoring economic and social history.

**History**

**Archaic period**

The Archaic period, roughly 800 to 500 BC, saw the culmination of political and social developments that began in the Greek Dark Age. The *polis*, or city-state, became the key unit of political organization. Greece’s mountainous geography and the absence of strong central states after Mycenae’s collapse encouraged the rise of small, independent city-states. During this time, several Greek states experienced rule by tyrants, most famously at Corinth starting in 657 BC. The period also saw Greek colonies founded around the Mediterranean, such as Euboean settlements at Al-Mina in the east as early as 800 BC and at Ischia in the west by 775. Increased contact with non-Greek peoples, especially in the Near East, spurred developments in art and architecture, the adoption of coinage, and the creation of the Greek alphabet. Athens developed its democratic system over the course of the Archaic period.