Ancient Greece
Ancient Greeks like Plato are credited with the inception of various concepts like academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations
Ancient Greece is a term used in academia to refer to the civilization that thrived in regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea from 2200 BC to AD 1453. There are eight major historical periods that are part of ancient Greece. The actual end of the period called ancient Greece has been a point of contention by scholars for generations; some claim it ends with the Macedonian Supremacy of Alexander the Great while others contend it properly ends with the fall of the Byzantine reign.
Minoan Period (2200 BC-1400 BC)
Mycenaean Period (1550 BC-1000 BC)
Greek Dark Age (1000 BC-750 BC)
Archaic Age (750 BC-480 BC)
Classical Age (480 BC-323 BC)
Athenian Empire (480 BC-359 BC)
Macedonian Supremacy (359 BC-323 BC)
Hellenistic Greece (323 BC-331 BC)
Roman Greece (31 BC-395)
Byzantine Greece (395-1453)Ancient Greece was primarily situated on the Balkan Peninsula, the southern Italian Peninsula and the northern Mediterranean Islands. Also part of the territory were what we now call the modern state of Greece, the coasts of Asia Minor and the Iberian Peninsula where Portugal and Spain are located today. During parts of its history, ancient Greece included settlements in northern Africa and the Middle East. The ancient Greeks controlled commerce and trade in the Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea.
There were five main forms of government that came and passed with each successive historical period. Ancient Greece was ruled under monarchy, chiefdom, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. The Minoan and Mycenaean periods were defined by their monarchical governments. They instituted various principalities ruled by kings and princes of the reigning royal family. With the onset of the Greek Dark Age ancient Greece was governed by the weakest form of government, chiefdoms. Because of the lacking of central authority, governance relied heavily on the cooperation of followers. With the end of the Greek Dark Age and onset of the Archaic and Classical Ages, ancient Greece was then governed by tyrants. These tyrants established dynasties that were popular among the people because under the leadership of those dynasties, all citizens were ensured social stability. The people also supported tyrants because of the vast array of benefits offered to them in terms of employment and well-being of their families.
Hellenistic Greece was defined by its government by oligarchy and later by democracy. Under the oligarchy, a committee of aristocrats shared power over the ancient Greek territories. The underlying concept of this form of government was that the aristocracy was far more superior than the majority of citizens and therefore had a divine right to rule. Democracy later took over with every man afforded the right to a vote in the affairs of the state. For the first time, the leaders of ancient Greece were chosen from the common citizenry. Another radical idea from democracy was the practice of adopting term limits for leaders.
The economy of ancient Greece was heavily dependent on agriculture and trade. They primarily grew barley and wheat, staple grains for the Mediterranean people of that time. There was a scarcity in grazing land which accounts for the almost insignificant number of people that raised livestock like chickens, goats, pigs and sheep. More lucrative cash crops included grapes for wine and olives for oil, soap and perfume. Natural resources were also cultivated in the form of clay, lumber, marble and raw metals like silver. Metals were made into crafts, jewelry and mirrors. The commodities were traded in clay jars called amphora with nearby civilizations of Babylonia, Egypt and Phoenicia.
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Economy
See also