Overview of Ancient Greece

The Acropolis at Athens

The Greek Roots of Western Civilization

The following excerpt is taken from an account of a funeral oration given by Pericles, the political leader of Athens shortly after the beginning of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.). It illustrates, as well as anything can, the reasons why Ancient Greece is regarded as the foundation of western civilization.

Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbors. It is more the case of our being a model to others, than of our imitating anyone else. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses. No one, so long as he has it in him to be of service to the state, is kept in political obscurity because of poverty. And, just as our political life is free and open, so is our day-to-day life in our relations with each other. We do not get into a state with our next-door neighbor if he enjoys himself in his own way, nor do we give him the kind of black looks which, though they do no real harm, still do hurt people's feelings. We are free and tolerant in our private lives; but in public affairs we keep to the law. This is because it commands our deep respect.

   —From The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

Most people, when reading this, cannot help but reflect on the similarity in sentiment between those of Pericles, a prominent statesman of Athens, and those of western democracies—America in particular. But this is not a coincidence. The founders of the United States, as well as almost all educated westerners of their age, spent much time studying the Ancients and strove to emulate their best institutions. The Greeks have been a foundation of Western thought for over 2500 years and have influenced the leading thinkers and writers of the west from the Apostle Paul to Winston Churchill.

The Romans, who conquered the Greeks in the second century B.C. recognized the value of Greek philosophy, science, and literature, and emulated it. The New Testament was written in Greek because Greek was the language of learning throughout the eastern Mediterranean until the collapse of the Roman Empire. The Renaissance in Europe, which led to a rebirth in art, science, and culture in Europe came about largely due to the resurgence of classical learning in the 14th century. In short, the Greeks are rightly credited with laying the foundation of Western Culture in realms as diverse as art, science, philosophy and government. Any student who wants to understand the progress and perils of Western Civilization should start with an introduction to Greek History.

Ancient Greece was not a unified nation, but a collection of Greek city-states and colonies centred in mainland Greece and extending throughout the Aegean Sea, Asia Minor, and Italy. They shared a common language, religion, and culture, and were a sea-faring as well as an agriculturally based society. By about the seventh century B.C. a written Greek language had developed to such as extent that the stories of many cities-states were written down, and a reasonably reliable history of Greece is given from that time.

Pericles and Aspasia at the studio of Phidias.

But a complete knowledge of the Ancients must go beyond the recorded history of the early city-states. There are two topics that need to be understood before tackling the actual history of the Ancient Greeks. The first is the rich field of Greek Mythology and Legends. The idea of history, as distinct from legend, arose during the Golden Age of Greece. Thucydides is considered the first modern historian, but before his time history, legend, and folklore were an undifferentiated mix. Yet it was this mix of myth and legend that formed the basis of Greek character. Heritage Classical Curriculum’s first unit on Greek History, therefore, incorporates mythology and legend, extending from the most remote past to the legends of the Trojan War, which are thought to have been based on historical instances.

Another element necessary to understand the unique culture of Ancient Greece is that of the Eastern Empires which surrounded Greece, and to which the values and culture of Ancient Greece must be held in contrast. Media, Lydia, Persia, Babylon, and Egypt were just a few of the autocratic regimes which rose and fell in the Middle East before the rise of the Greeks. The best histories of these empires were written by Greek scholars such as Herodotus and Xenophon, but the differences in culture between the autocratic eastern despots and the democratic Greek city-states is apparent in many striking anecdotes, such as those of Bulis and Sperthias and Pythius. Citizens of the Greek city states were self-consciously free and independent, although since slavery was an accepted practice, only some citizens were truly free. However, they considered it enough that some citizens were free and enjoyed self-government, since under the eastern autocracies there were no free citizens. Even the wealthiest and most exalted of the satraps under the eastern dictators were but tax-collectors who held their positions purely at the whim of their overlord.

The recorded history of Greece begins in about 800 B.C. with the individual stories of some of the most important Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth, and Samos in the centuries before the Greco Persian Wars. The Persian War (500-479 B.C.) was the watershed event in Greek History, during which a remote and disorganized collection of city-states arose to defeat the invasion of a far larger and wealthier empire, which had henceforth vanquished all who dared resist it. The battles of the Persian War and the stories and personalities associated with them are among the most famous and inspirational in the history of warfare.

The prestige and prosperity which fell to the Greek states after their victory over the Persians was ultimately concentrated in the hands of the Athenian empire, which came to dominate most of the Greek sea-faring states scattered throughout the Aegean Sea. Many of the most famous personalities, writings, and relics of classical Greece are dated to this golden age of Greece. The non-aligned Greeks, fearful of Athenian hegemony now rose against her, and after the terribly destructive Peloponnesian War, the dominance of Athens was broken for good.

After the Golden Age of the Athenian Empire, other powers arose: first Sparta, then Thebes and finally Macedonia. The sixty years following the Peloponnesian War still produced many works of great genius, but the Decline of Greece was evident, and by 338 B.C. most Greek city-states in the East fell under the rule of Macedonia. Although Macedonia had been a small, semi-barbaric country, its conquests under Philip II and his son Alexander led to the spread of Greek culture throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Greco-Macedonian, or Hellenistic Era lasted from the conquest of Persia until the second century, when Romans conquered the entire region. Even then, Greek culture was so well established that Greek remained the language of commerce and education throughout the eastern Mediterranean, even during the seven centuries that Greece was a province of the Roman Empire.

The history of Ancient Greece is divided into the following sub-divisions. The timelines, character lists, historical maps, and other information are each associated with a specific era in Greek History.

Historical Eras of Ancient Greece