Greece is located in the northeastern section of the Mediterranean Sea. The classical period in Greece began around 500 BCE. During the following one hundred years, Greek culture flourished, especially in the city-state of Athens, and Greek ideas and discoveries produced art, architecture, drama, science, and philosophy that were to form the foundation of later Western civilization.
The earliest recognizably Greek civilization, the Mycenaean, flourished between 1600 and 1200 BCE. When the Mycenaean Age came to an end, around the twelfth century BCE, there followed a period, lasting until about 800 BCE, known as the Dark Ages, when the art of writing was lost. Toward 800 BCE the Greeks began to use writing again. Around 700 BCE Homer, Greece’s greatest poet, composed the Iliad and the Odyssey. During the next two centuries the Greeks made steady advances in economic, political, and cultural matters.
Between 490 and 479 BCE, the Greek city-states joined forces to fight off the might of the Persian Empire. The city-states also fought with each other. Toward the end of the century, Athens was defeated by Sparta, another powerful city-state, in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE). The classical period ended in around 336 BCE, in the time of Alexander the Great.
Government
Because Greek city-states were often separated from each other by mountain ranges, they developed in different ways, even though they shared the same language and worshiped the same gods.
Some city-states were ruled by a king and thus were monarchies. The word monarchy comes from two Greek words meaning "rule" and "alone." Other city-states were ruled by rich, landowning families, a type of government called aristocracy (aristos means "best"). Rule by someone who seizes power for himself is known as tyranny. If a small group seizes power, the government is an oligarchy (oligos means "few").
Athens passed through some of these forms of government before finally developing democracy, a type of government in which every citizen had a say in what the laws should be (demos is the Greek for "people").
|
XENOPHON C. 428–C. 354 BCE |
|
|
|
Xenophon was born into an aristocratic Athenian family. He became a pupil of the philosopher Socrates and a member of the Athenian cavalry. However, he left Athens and served first the Persians and then the Spartans against Athens. He was exiled by the Athenians, yet as relations between Athens and Sparta improved, he may have been allowed to return to Athens, where he died. He is famous for the books he wrote during his extraordinary life: seven on the history of Greece and others on a variety of subjects, including hare hunting, horsemanship, and an imaginary account of a drinking party with Socrates called The Symposium.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Although Athenian democracy did not include voting rights for women or slaves, it was the most advanced form of government in Greece and has been a model for democratic countries ever since.
