Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) 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. Most of these regions were officially unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexander the Great's empire from 336 to 323 BC.[a] In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine period.[1]
Three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, 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 the Greco-Persian Wars to the 5th to 4th centuries BC, and which included the Golden Age of Athens. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenistic civilization from the western Mediterranean to Central Asia. The Hellenistic period ended with the conquest of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, and the annexation of the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.
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.[2][3][4]
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^Carol G. Thomas (1988). Paths from ancient Greece. Brill. pp. 27–50. ISBN 978-90-04-08846-7.
^Maura Ellyn; Maura McGinnis (2004). Greece: A Primary Source Cultural Guide. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8239-3999-2.
^John E. Findling; Kimberly D. Pelle (2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-313-32278-5.
^Wayne C. Thompson; Mark H. Mullin (1983). Western Europe, 1983. Stryker-Post Publications. p. 337. ISBN 9780943448114. for ancient Greece was the cradle of Western culture ...
AncientGreece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries...
AncientGreek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancientGreece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly...
A theatrical culture flourished in ancientGreece from 700 BC. At its centre was the city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political...
Religious practices in ancientGreece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and cult...
AncientGreek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which...
Pederasty in ancientGreece was a socially acknowledged romantic relationship between an older male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually...
AncientGreek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects...
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancientGreeks, and a genre of ancientGreek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology...
AncientGreek architecture came from the Greeks, or Hellenics, whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and...
Warfare occurred throughout the history of AncientGreece, from the Greek Dark Ages onward. The Greek 'Dark Ages' drew to an end as a significant increase...
This list of ancientGreek philosophers contains philosophers who studied in ancientGreece or spoke Greek. AncientGreek philosophy began in Miletus with...
incomplete list of ancientGreek cities, including colonies outside Greece. Note that there were a great number of Greek cities in the ancient world. In this...
The regions of ancientGreece were sub-divisions of the Hellenic world as conceived by the AncientGreeks of antiquity, shown by their presence in the...
in ancientGreece refers to clothing starting from the Aegean bronze age (3000 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (31 BCE). Clothing in ancientGreece included...
AncientGreek cuisine was characterized by its frugality for most, reflecting agricultural hardship, but a great diversity of ingredients was known, and...
The ancient Olympic Games (AncientGreek: τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ta Olympia) were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and were...
ancientGreece is the main surviving type of fine ancientGreek art as, with the exception of painted ancientGreek pottery, almost no ancientGreek painting...
AncientGreek literature is literature written in the AncientGreek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest...
The Macedonians (Greek: Μακεδόνες, Makedónes) were an ancient tribe that lived on the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios in the...
AncientGreek comedy (AncientGreek: κωμῳδία, romanized: kōmōidía) was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece...
AncientGreek medicine was a compilation of theories and practices that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. The Greek term for...
The history of ancientGreek coinage can be divided (along with most other Greek art forms) into four periods: the Archaic, the Classical, the Hellenistic...
of ancientGreece refers to the influence of AncientGreece on later periods of history, from Medieval times up to the current modern era. Greek culture...
boxes, or other symbols. Slavery was a widely accepted practice in ancientGreece, as it was in contemporaneous societies. The principal use of slaves...
The economy of ancientGreece was defined largely by the region's dependence on imported goods. As a result of the poor quality of Greece's soil, agricultural...
and characteristics of ancient and modern-day women in Greece evolved from the events that occurred in the history of Greece. According to Michael Scott...
AncientGreek astronomy is the astronomy written in the Greek language during classical antiquity. Greek astronomy is understood to include the Ancient...