Question Home

Position:Home>History> Ancient greece ??????


Question: Ancient greece !?!?!?!?!?!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
History

Pre-Hellenic civilisation

Main articles: Greeks and Helladic period

The tribes who would become the Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the Balkan peninsula in several waves beginning in the Middle Bronze Age (roughly 2000 BC)!. The Proto-Greek language would date to the period just preceding these migrations, either to the late 3rd millennium BC, or to the 17th century BC at the latest!. The Bronze Age civilisation of the proto-Greeks is generally referred to as Helladic!.

This period culminated in the so-called Mycenaean Culture, which features in the famous epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey!. For reasons which are unknown, this culture collapsed spectacularly around 1150 BC, with cities being sacked and massive depopulation!. This Bronze Age collapse approximately coincides with the apparent arrival of the last group of proto-Greeks into Greece proper, the Dorians!. The two events have traditionally been causally linked, but this is by no means certain!. With the Bronze Age collapse, Greece entered into a period of obscurity, or 'dark age'!.

Greek Dark Ages

Main article: Greek Dark Ages

The period from 1100 BC to the 8th century BC is a "Dark Age" following the Bronze Age collapse from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains!. Secondary and tertiary texts such as Herodotus' Histories, Pausanias' Description of Greece, Diodorus' Bibliotheca, and Jerome's Chronicon contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period!.

Archaic period

Main article: Archaic period in Greece

8th century

In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization!. Literacy had been lost and Linear B, the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet!. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear!. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges!.

7th century

The first half of the 7th century saw the Lelantine War (c!.710-c!.650 BC), an ongoing conflict with the distinction of being the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period!. Fought between the then important poleis (city-states) of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea, both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal victor!.

The first half of the 7th century also seems to have seen the rise of a mercantile class (shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC)!. This seems to have introduced tension to many city states!. The aristocrastic regimes which generally governed the poleis were threatened by the new-found wealth of merchants, who in turn desired political power!. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by populist tyrants!. The word derives from the non-pejorative Greek τ?ραννο? tyrannos, meaning "illegitimate ruler", although this was applicable to both good and bad leaders alike!.[2][3]
Early Athenian coin, 5th century BC!. British Museum!.
Early Athenian coin, 5th century BC!. British Museum!.

A growing population and shortage of land also seems to have created internal strife between the poor and the rich in many city states!. In Sparta, the Messenian Wars resulted in the conquest of Messenia and enserfment of the Messenians, an act without precedent or antecedent in ancient Greece!. This practice allowed a social revolution to occur [4]!. The subjugated population, thenceforth know as helots, would farm and labour for Sparta, whilst every Spartan male became a soldier of the Spartan Army in a permanently militarized state!. Even the elite were obliged to live and train as soldiers; this equality between rich and poor served to diffuse the social conflict!. These reforms, attributed to the shadowy Lycurgus of Sparta were probably complete by 650 BC!.

Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century, again resulting in civil strife!. The Archon (chief magistrate) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BC (hence Draconian), but these failed to quell the conflict!. Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon (594 BC), improving the lot of the poor, but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability!.

6th century
Greek influence in the mid 6th century BC!.
Greek influence in the mid 6th century BC!.

By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes!. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well!.

Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Gr?cia (Southern Italy and Sicily), Asia Minor and further afield (see below)!. The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century by which time the Greek world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the area of present-day Greece!. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them!.

In this period, huge economic development occurred in Greece and also her overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing!. There also was a large improvement in the living standards of the population!. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population!.

In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny of Peisistratos and then his sons Hippias and Hipparchus!. However, in 510 BC, at the instigation of the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, the Spartan king Cleomenes I helped the Athenians overthrow the tyranny!. Promptly turning on each other Cleomenes I then installed Isagoras as a pro-Spartan archon!. Eager to prevent Athens becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes responded by proposing to his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution; that all citizens shared in the power, regardless of status; that Athens become a 'democracy'!. So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea, that, having overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were easily able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at restoring Isagoras [5]!. The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of Athens, and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians!.

Classical Greece

Main article: Classical Greece

5th century

Main articles: Greco-Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War

Athens and Sparta would soon have to become allies in the face of the largest external threat ancient Greece would see until the Roman conquest!. After suppressing the Ionian Revolt, a rebellion of the Greek cities of Ionia, Darius I of Persia, King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, decided to subjugate Greece!. His invasion in 490 BC was ended by the heroic Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon under Miltiades the Younger!. Xerxes I of Persia, son and successor of Darius I, attempted his own invasion 10 years later, but was, despite his overwhelmingly large army, defeated after the famous rearguard action at Thermopylae, and victories for the allied Greeks at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea!. The Greco-Persian Wars continued until 449 BC, led by the Athenians and their Delian League, during which time the Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and Ionia were all liberated from Persian influence!.
Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC!.
Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC!.

The now dominant position of the maritime Athenian 'Empire' threatened Sparta and the Peloponnesian League of mainland Greek cities!. Inevitably, this led to conflict, resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)!. Though effectively a stalemate for the vast majority of its length, Athens suffered a number of setbacks during the war!. A great plague in 430 BC, followed by the Sicilian Expedition, a disastrous military expedition to Sicily, severely weakened Athens!. Sparta was able to ferment rebellion amongst Athens's allies, further reducing the Athenian ability to wage war!. The decisive moment came in 405 BC when Sparta cut off the grain supply to Athens from the Hellespont!. Forced to attack, the crippled Athenian fleet was decisively defeated by the Spartans under the command of Lysander at Aegospotami!. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls (including the Long Walls), her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions!.

4th century

Greece thus entered the 4th century under a Spartan hegemony, but it was clear from the start that this was weak!. A demographic crisis meant Sparta was overstrechted, and by 395 BC Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth felt able to challenge Spartan dominace, resulting in the Corinthian War (395-387 BC)!. Another war of stalemates, it ended with the status quo restored, after the threat of Persian intervention on behalf of the Spartans!.

The Spartan hegemony lasted another 16 years, until, when attempting to impose their will on the Thebans, the Spartans suffered a decisive defeat at the Leuctra(371 BC)!. The brilliant Theban general Epaminondas then led Theban troops into the Peloponnese, whereupon other city-states defected from the Spartan cause!. The Thebans were thus able to march in Messenia and free the Www@QuestionHome@Com

You're talking about a period roughly from 6000 BC to 500 AD!.!.!. and anything from architecture to naval construction or from trade arrangements to theatre scenery!.!.!.
could you be just a tiny little bit more specific!?Www@QuestionHome@Com