Introduction
Greece is a place with a lot of history, being known for its alphabet, his philosophy, and much more. Ancient Greece is part of the so-called Western Antiquity or Classic. The Greeks settled mainly in the Balkan peninsula, in the southeastern region of Europe, bathed by the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Unlike other ancient empires, Greek civilization did not create a political and administrative unit but was organized into city-states (or poleis), with autonomy and their own governments. Despite not being unified, the Greeks had a common origin and shared many cultural aspects, establishing different types of relationships among themselves.
The history of Ancient Greece is divided into five periods:
1. Pre-Homeric;
2. Homeric;
3. Archaic;
4. Classic;
5. Hellenistic.
Both the Homeric and previous periods are references to Homer, author of the works “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. These works are dedicated to narrating, respectively, the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and Trojans; and the return of Ulysses ( Odysseus ) from war.
As a result, they constitute important sources for understanding the occupation and colonization of areas close to the Aegean Sea and contributed to establishing origin and cultural links between the Greek people. Related Article: History Of Ancient Near East: Introduction, Other Peoples and Civilizations
Pre-Homeric (XX – XII BC)
This is the period in which, around 2,000 BC, several Indo-European peoples, including the Achaeans, the Ionians and the Aeolians, settled in the Balkan peninsula through different migratory flows.
The last to arrive in the Balkans, the Dorians (1,200 BC) manage to dominate the city of Mycenae and gain control of the Peloponnese region. Faced with the dominance of the Dorians, other people dispersed and began to populate other regions of the Greek coast and Asia Minor, in what became known as the first Greek diaspora.
Homeric (XII – VIII BC)
After the diaspora, the Greeks spread across the Balkan region and organized themselves into small productive units called “genos”. Based on collective land ownership, genos were formed by large families, under the command of a leader, the “pater”, who had several community functions.
Over time, these units became unable to supply the entire population that lived from them and began to disintegrate. Migration in search of better survival conditions would provoke the second Greek diaspora, which this time reached areas close to the Italian peninsula and the Black Sea.
Archaic (VIII – VI BC)
With the crisis and decline of the genos, the former “paters” began to distribute their lands, previously communal properties. With the unequal distribution of private property, the class of aristocrats emerged and the formation of what would give rise to the Greek city-states began.
The main political-administrative units of the Greek people, city-states began to develop their own models of internal organization and government. The two model cases are Athens It is Sparta.
It is necessary to take into account that city-states existed for hundreds of years and, during this period, there were variations in models of government and society. However, these generalizations help to highlight some of the peculiarities of each city-state.
During this period, the Olympic Games were also created, which brought together citizens from all over Greece in the city of Olympia, for sporting contests in honor of Zeus, the main Greek deity.
Athens
In general terms, Athens, although it had an important production of some agricultural products, was focused on trade, due to the few fertile lands available. This contributed to it becoming a multicultural city focused on intellectual activities. Examples of this are the philosophy and the theater, which had their origins in Athens.
Throughout its history, Athens went through several types of government (monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny), but the main system of government developed by the Athenians was democracy, characterized by the participation of citizens (exclusively men, children of Athenians, free and older age) in political decision-making.
Sparta
Sparta, on the other hand, was located in a region of fertile land, the Peloponnese peninsula, and prioritized agricultural production over trade.
It also had a highly militarized society, in which all male children, in perfect health, received military training from the age of 8. Its government was oligarchic, that is, controlled by a restricted group of people from the upper classes.
Classic (V – IV BC)
In general, in the Classical period there was the consolidation of the models of Greek city-states and, in the case of Athens, democracy.
However, it was also a period of conflict, initially marked by the Persian Empire’s attack on Greece. As the Persians were known to the Greeks as “Medes”, this conflict was called the Medical Wars (499 – 449 BC). In the end, the Greeks emerged victorious and limited the expansion of the Persian Empire.
The end of the Medical Wars marked a period of Athenian hegemony, but it also provoked the intensification of disputes between rival poleis. Athens led a confederation of cities called the Delian Confederation, while Sparta led the Peloponnesian League.
Between 431 and 404 BC, the city-states were in conflict, alternating periods of hegemony. However, these conflicts ended up causing the decline of Greek civilization and facilitating the action of invaders.
Hellenistic (III-II BC)
With the weakening of the city-states, Greece was conquered by Philip II, king of Macedonia. Philip II’s son, Alexander the Great, had been a student of Aristotle in Athens and shared Greek culture.
By expanding his father’s domains, Alexander not only dominated vast areas and conquered other empires, but also spread Greek culture throughout the East. This fusion between Greek culture and Eastern culture, promoted by Alexander’s expeditions, became known as Hellenism.