Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek
history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (c. AD 600).
Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.
[1]
Roughly 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 colonization of
the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began
with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests
by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the
western end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Hellenistic period came to an end with
the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which
established 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 to many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and Europe. For this reason,
Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of
modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization.[2][3][4]
Classical Greek culture gave great importance to knowledge. Science and religion were not separate
and getting closer to the truth meant getting closer to the gods. In this context, they understood the
importance of mathematics as an instrument for obtaining more reliable ("divine") knowledge.
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Greek culture, in a few centuries and with a limited population, managed to explore and make
progress in many fields of science, mathematics, philosophy and knowledge in general.
Chronology
Further information: Timeline of ancient Greece
Classical antiquity in the Mediterranean region is commonly considered to have begun in the 8th
century BC[6] (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 the Dark Ages was the Archaic Period, beginning around the 8th century BC. The
Archaic Period saw early developments in Greek culture and society which formed the basis for
the Classical Period.[7] After the Archaic Period, the Classical Period in Greece is conventionally
considered to have lasted from the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 until the death of Alexander
the Great in 323.[8] The period is characterized by a style which was considered by later observers to
be exemplary, i.e., "classical", as shown in the Parthenon, for instance. 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 saw
the Greco-Persian Wars and 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. This period begins with the death of Alexander
and ends with the Roman conquest. Roman Greece is usually considered to be the period between
Roman victory over the Corinthians at the Battle of Corinth in 146 BC and the establishment
of Byzantium by Constantine as the capital of the Roman Empire in AD 330. Finally, Late
Antiquity refers to the period of Christianization during the later 4th to early 6th centuries AD,
sometimes taken to be complete with the closure of the Academy of Athens by Justinian I in 529.[9]
Historiography
