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Ancient Greece
*** Shopping-Tip: Ancient Greece
{{History of Greece}}
'''Ancient Greece''' is the term used to describe the
Ancient Greece Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the
geographical peninsula of modern
Greece, but also to areas of
Hellenic culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks:
Cyprus, the
Aegean Sea Aegean coast of
Turkey (then known as
Ionia),
Sicily and southern
Italy (known as
Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now
Albania,
Bulgaria,
Egypt,
Libya, southern
France, southern, east and northeast
Spain,
Georgia (country) Georgia,
Romania, and
Ukraine.
There are no fixed or universally agreed upon dates for the beginning or the end of the Ancient Greek period. In common usage it refers to all Greek history before the
Roman Empire, but historians use the term more precisely. Some writers include the periods of the Greek-speaking
Mycenaean Greece Mycenaean civilization that collapsed about
1100 BC, though most would argue that the influential
Minoan civilization Minoan was so different from later Greek cultures that it should be classed separately.
In the modern Greek school-books, "ancient times" is a period of about 1000 years (from the catastrophe of
Mycenae until the conquest of the country by the
Roman Republic Romans) that is divided in four periods, based on styles of art as much as culture and politics. The historical line starts with
Greek Dark Ages (
1100 BC 1100–
800 BC). In this period artists use geometrical schemes such as squares, circles, lines to decorate
amphoras and other pottery. The
Archaic period in Greece archaic period (
800 BC 800–
500 BC) represents those years when the artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, hieratic poses with the dreamlike "archaic smile". In the
classical period (
500 BC 500–
323 BC) artists perfected the style that since has been taken as exemplary: "classical", such as the (
Parthenon). In the
Hellenistic Greece Hellenistic years that followed the conquests of
Alexander the Great Alexander (
323 BC 323–
146 BC), also known as
Alexandrian, aspects of Hellenic civilization expanded to Egypt and
Bactria.
Traditionally, the Ancient Greek period was taken to begin with the date of the first
Olympic Games in
776 BC, but many historians now extend the term back to about
1000 BC. The traditional date for the end of the Ancient Greek period is the death of
Alexander the Great in
323 BC (The following period is classed
Hellenistic Greece Hellenistic) or the integration of Greece into the
Roman Republic in
146 BC.
These dates are historians' conventions and some writers treat the Ancient Greek civilization as a continuum running until the advent of
Christianity in the
3rd century.
Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of
Western world Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the
Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of
Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art and architecture of the modern world, particularly during the
Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various
Neoclassicism neo-Classical revivals in
18th century 18th and
19th century Europe and
The Americas.
Origins
The Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the Balkan peninsula in several waves beginning in the late
3rd millennium BC, the last being the
Dorian invasion. The period from
1600 BC 1600 BC to about
1100 BC is described in
History of Mycenaean Greece known for the reign of
King Agamemnon and the wars against Troy as narrated in the epics of
Homer. The period from
1100 BC to the
8th century BC is a "
Greek Dark Ages dark age" from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains. Secondary and tertiary texts such as
Herodotus' ''Histories'',
Pausanias (geographer) Pausanias' ''Description of Greece'',
Diodorus' ''Bibliotheca'' and
Jerome's ''
Chronicon (Jerome) Chronicon'', contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period. The history of Ancient Greece is often taken to end with the reign of
Alexander the Great, who died in
323 BC. Subsequent events are described in
Hellenistic Greece.
Any history of Ancient Greece requires a cautionary note on sources. Those Greek historians and political writers whose works have survived, notably
Herodotus,
Thucydides,
Xenophon,
Demosthenes,
Plato and
Aristotle, were mostly either
Athens Athenian or pro-Athenian. That is why we know far more about the history and politics of Athens than of any other city, and why we know almost nothing about some cities' histories. These writers, furthermore, concentrate almost wholly on political, military and diplomatic history, and ignore economic and social history. All histories of Ancient Greece have to contend with these limits in their sources.
The rise of Hellas
Image:Ac.parthenon5.jpg Athena.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|left|The Greek Temple to [[Athena, the
Parthenon..html" title="Meaning of left|The Greek Temple to [[Athena">thumb|left|The Greek Temple to [[Athena, the
Parthenon.">left|The Greek Temple to [[Athena">thumb|left|The Greek Temple to [[Athena, the
Parthenon.
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 the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adapted the
Phoenician alphabet to
Greek alphabet Greek and from about
800 BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges.
As Greece recovered economically, its population grew beyond the capacity of its limited
arable land, and from about
750 BC the Greeks began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the
Aegean Sea Aegean coast of
Anatolia Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by
History of ancient Cyprus Cyprus and the coasts of
Thrace, the
Sea of Marmara and south coast of the
Black Sea. Eventually Greek colonization reached as far north-east as present day
Ukraine. To the west the coasts of
Albania,
Sicily and southern
Italy were settled, followed by the south coast of
France,
Corsica, and even northeastern
Spain. Greek colonies were also founded in
Egypt and
Libya. Modern
Syracuse, Italy Syracuse,
Naples,
Marseille and
Istanbul had their beginnings as the Greek colonies Syracusa, Neapolis, Massilia and
Byzantium Byzantium.
By the
6th century BC '''Hellas''' had become a cultural and linguistic area much larger than the geographical area of Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. The Greeks both at home and abroad organised themselves into independent communities, and the city (''
polis'') became the basic unit of Greek government.
Social and political conflict
The Greek cities were originally monarchies, although many of them were very small and the term "King" (''
basileus'') for their rulers is misleadingly grand. In a country always short of farmland, power rested with a small class of landowners, who formed a warrior
aristocracy fighting frequent petty inter-city wars over land and rapidly ousting the monarchy. About this time the rise of a mercantile class (shown by the introduction of
coinage in about
680 BC 680 BC) introduced class conflict into the larger cities. From
650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by
populist leaders called
tyrant tyrants (''tyrranoi''), a word which did not necessarily have the modern meaning of oppressive dictators.
By the
6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs:
Athens,
History of Sparta Sparta,
Corinth, Greece Corinth, and
Thebes (Greece) 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. Athens and Sparta developed a rivalry that dominated Greek politics for generations.
In Sparta, the
landed aristocracy retained their power, and the constitution of
Lycurgus (about
650 BC) entrenched their power and gave Sparta a permanent militarist regime under a dual monarchy. Sparta dominated the other cities of the
Peloponnese, with the sole exceptions of
Argos Argus and
Achaia.
In Athens, by contrast, the monarchy was abolished in
683 BC, and reforms of
Solon established a moderate system of aristocratic government. The aristocrats were followed by the tyranny of
Pisistratus and his sons, who made the city a great naval and commercial power. When the Pisistratids were overthrown,
Cleisthenes established the world's first
Athenian democracy democracy (
500 BC), with power being held by an assembly of all the male citizens. But it must be remembered that only a minority of the male inhabitants were citizens, excluding slaves, freedmen and non-Athenians.
The Persian Wars
{{main|Greco-Persian Wars}}
In
Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of
Turkey) the Greek cities, which included great centres such as
Miletus and
Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the
Persian Empire in the mid 6th century BC. In
499 BC the Greeks rose in the
Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities went to their aid.
In
490 BC the Persian Great King,
Darius I of Persia Darius I, having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a fleet to punish the Greeks. The Persians landed in
Attica, but were defeated at the
Battle of Marathon by a Greek army led by the Athenian general
Miltiades. The burial mound of the Athenian dead can still be seen at Marathon.
Ten years later Darius's successor,
Xerxes I of Persia Xerxes I, sent a much more powerful force by land. After being delayed by the Spartan King
Leonidas I at
Battle of Thermopylae Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced into Attica, where he captured and burned Athens. But the Athenians had evacuated the city by sea, and under
Themistocles they defeated the Persian fleet at the
Battle of Salamis. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan
Pausanias (general) Pausanius, defeated the Persian army at
Battle of Plataea Plataea.
The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians out of the
Aegean Sea, and in
478 BC 478 BC they captured
Byzantium. In the course of doing so Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland allies into an alliance, called the
Delian League because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of
Delos. The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation after it, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power.
The dominance of Athens
Image:pericles.jpg thumb|200px|Pericles
The Persian Wars ushered in a century of Athenian dominance of Greek affairs. Athens was the unchallenged master of the sea, and also the leading commercial power, although Corinth remained a serious rival. The leading statesman of this time was
Pericles, who used the tribute paid by the members of the Delian League to build the
Parthenon and other great monuments of classical Athens. By the mid 5th century the League had become an
Athenian Empire, symbolised by the transfer of the League's treasury from Delos to the Parthenon in
454 BC 454 BC.
The wealth of Athens attracted talented people from all over Greece, and also created a wealthy leisure class who became patrons of the arts. The Athenian state also sponsored learning and the arts, particularly architecture. Athens became the centre of Greek literature, philosophy (see
Greek philosophy) and the arts (see
Greek theatre). Some of the greatest names of Western cultural and intellectual history lived in Athens during this period: the dramatists
Aeschylus,
Aristophanes,
Euripides, and
Sophocles, the philosophers
Aristotle,
Plato, and
Socrates, the historians
Herodotus,
Thucydides, and
Xenophon, the poet
Simonides of Ceos Simonides and the sculptor
Pheidias. The city became, in Pericles's words, "the school of Hellas."
The other Greek states at first accepted Athenian leadership in the continuing war against the Persians, but after the fall of the conservative politician
Cimon in
461 BC 461 BC, Athens became an increasingly open imperialist power. After the Greek victory at the
Battle of the Eurymedon in
466 BC 466 BC, the Persians were no longer a threat, and some states, such as
Naxos, Greece Naxos, tried to secede from the League, but were forced to submit. The new Athenian leaders,
Pericles and
Ephialtes, let relations between Athens and Sparta deteriorate, and in
458 BC 458 BC war broke out. After some years of inconclusive war a 30-year peace was signed between the
Delian League and the
Peloponnesian League (Sparta and her allies). This coincided with the last battle between the Greeks and the Persians, a sea battle off
Battle of Salamis (in Cyprus) Salamis in
Cyprus, followed by the
Peace of Callias (
450 BC 450 BC) between the Greeks and Persians.
The Peloponnesian War
{{main|Peloponnesian War}}
Image:Alcibiades.jpg thumb|200px|right|Alcibiades
In
431 BC war broke out again between Athens and Sparta and its allies. The immediate cause was a dispute between Corinth and one of its colonies,
Corcyra (modern-day
Corfu), in which Athens intervened. The underlying cause was the growing resentment of Sparta and its allies at the dominance of Athens over Greek affairs. The war lasted 27 years, partly because Athens (a naval power) and Sparta (a land-based military power) found it difficult to come to grips with each other.
Sparta's initial strategy was to invade
Attica, but the Athenians were able to retreat behind their walls. An outbreak of
Plague of Athens plague in the city during the siege caused heavy losses, including Pericles. At the same time the Athenian fleet landed troops in the Peloponnese, winning battles at
Battle of Naupactus (429 BC) Naupactus (
429 BC) and
Battle of Pylos Pylos (
425 BC). But these tactics could bring neither side a decisive victory.
After several years of inconclusive campaigning, the moderate Athenian leader
Nicias concluded the
Peace of Nicias (
421 BC 421 BC).
In
418 BC, however, hostility between Sparta and the Athenian ally
Argos led to a resumption of fighting. At
Battle of Mantinea (418 BC) Mantinea Sparta defeated the combined armies of Athens and her allies. The resumption of fighting brought the war party, led by
Alcibiades, back to power in Athens. In
415 BC 415 BC Alcibiades persuaded the Athenian Assembly to launch a major expedition against
Syracuse, Italy Syracuse, a Peloponnesian ally in
Sicily. Though Nicias was a skeptic about the
Sicilian Expedition, he was appointed along Alcibiades to lead the expedition. Due to accusations against him, Alcibiades fled to Sparta where he persuaded Sparta to send aid to Syracuse. As a result, the expedition was a complete disaster and the whole expeditionary force was lost. Nicias was executed by his captors.
Sparta had now built a fleet(with the help of the Persians)to challenge Athenian naval supremacy, and had found a brilliant military leader in
Lysander, who seized the strategic initiative by occupying the
Hellespont, the source of Athens' grain imports. Threatened with starvation, Athens sent its last remaining fleet to confront Lysander, who decisively defeated them at
battle of Aegospotami Aegospotami (
405 BC). The loss of her fleet threatened Athens with bankruptcy. In
404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls, her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. The anti-democratic party took power in Athens with Spartan support.
Spartan and Theban dominance
The end of the Peloponnesian War left Sparta the master of Greece, but the narrow outlook of the Spartan warrior elite did not suit them to this role. Within a few years the democratic party regained power in Athens and other cities. In
395 BC the Spartan rulers removed Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval supremacy.
Athens,
Argos,
Thebes, Greece Thebes, and
Corinth, the latter two formerly Spartan allies, challenged Spartan dominance in the
Corinthian War, which ended inconclusively in
387 BC. That same year Sparta shocked Greek opinion by concluding the
Treaty of Antalcidas with Persia, by which they surrendered the Greek cities of Ionia and Cyprus; thus they reversed a hundred years of Greek victories against Persia. Sparta then tried to further weaken the power of Thebes, which led to a war where Thebes formed an alliance with the old enemy, Athens.
Then the Theban generals
Epaminondas and
Pelopidas won a decisive victory at
Battle of Leuctra Leuctra (
371 BC). The result of this battle was the end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of Theban dominance, but Athens herself recovered much of her former power because the supremacy of Thebes was short-lived. With the death of Epaminondas at
Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) Mantinea (
362 BC) the city lost its greatest leader, and his successors blundered into an ineffectual ten-year war with
Phocis. In
346 BC 346 BC the Thebans appealed to
Philip II of Macedon to help them against the Phocians, thus drawing
Macedon into Greek affairs for the first time.
The rise of Macedon
The Kingdom of
Macedon was formed in the 7th century BC out of northern Greek tribes. They played little part in Greek politics before the beginning of the 4th century, but Philip was an ambitious man who had been educated in Thebes and wanted to play a larger role. In particular, he wanted to be accepted as the new leader of Greece in recovering the freedom of the Greek cities of Asia from Persian rule. By seizing the Greek cities of
Amphipolis,
Methone and
Potidaea, he gained control of the gold and silver mines of Macedonia. This gave him the resources to realize his ambitions.
Philip established Macedonian dominance over
Thessaly (
352 BC 352 BC) and
Thrace, and by
348 BC 348 BC he controlled everything north of
Thermopylae. He used his great wealth to bribe Greek politicians and create a "Macedonian party" in every Greek city. His intervention in the war between Thebes and Phocis brought him recognition as a Greek leader, and gave him his opportunity to become a power in Greek affairs. But despite his sincere admiration for Athens, the Athenian leader
Demosthenes, in a series of famous speeches (
philippic philippics) roused the Greek cities to resist his advance.
In
339 BC Thebes, Athens, Sparta and other Greek states formed an alliance to resist Philip and expel him from the Greek cities he had occupied in the north. But Philip struck first, advancing into Greece and defeating the Greek cities at
Chaeronea in
338 BC 338 BC. This traditionally marks the end of the era of the Greek city-state as an independent political unit, although in fact Athens and other cities survived as independent states until
Roman Republic Roman times.
Philip tried to win over Athens by flattery and gifts, but did not really succeed. He organised the cities into the
League of Corinth, and announced that he would lead an invasion of Persia to liberate the Greek cities and avenge the Persian invasions of the previous century. But before he could do so he was assassinated (
336 BC 336 BC).
The conquests of Alexander
Philip was succeeded by his 20-year-old son
Alexander the Great Alexander, who immediately set out to carry out his father's plans. He travelled to Corinth where the assembled Greek cities recognised him as leader of the Greeks, then set off north to assemble his forces. The army with which he invaded the Persian Empire was basically Macedonian, but many idealists from the Greek cities also enlisted. But while Alexander was campaigning in Thrace, he heard that the Greek cities had rebelled. He swept south again, captured Thebes, and razed the city to the ground as a warning to the Greek cities that his power could no longer be resisted.
In
334 BC Alexander crossed into Asia, and defeated the Persians at the river
Battle of the Granicus Granicus. This gave him control of the Ionian coast, and he made a triumphal procession through the liberated Greek cities. After settling affairs in
Anatolia, he advanced south through
Cilicia into
Syria, where he defeated
Darius III at
Battle of Issus Issus (
333 BC). He then advanced through
Phoenicia to
Egypt, which he captured with little resistance, the Egyptians welcoming him as a liberator from Persian oppression.
Darius was now ready to make peace and Alexander could have returned home in triumph, but he was determined to conquer Persia and make himself the ruler of the world. He advanced north-east through Syria and
Mesopotamia, and defeated Darius again at
Battle of Gaugamela Gaugamela (
331 BC). Darius fled and was killed by his own followers, and Alexander found himself the master of the Persian Empire, occupying
Susa and
Persepolis without resistance.
Image:Zeusganymedepederastyafghanistan.jpeg Greco-Bactrian.html"_title="Meaning of right right|thumb|220px|[[Greco-Bactrian_coin depicting
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Zeus (as an eagle) being offered wine by
Ganymede. A child
Eros is in the foreground.
Meanwhile the Greek cities were making renewed efforts to escape from Macedonian control. At
Battle of Megalopolis Megalopolis in
331 BC, Alexander's regent
Antipater defeated the Spartans, who had refused to join the Corinthian League or recognise Macedonian supremacy.
Alexander pressed on, advancing through what are now
Afghanistan and
Pakistan to the
Indus river valley, and by
326 BC 326 BC he had reached
Punjab region Punjab. He might well have advanced down the
Ganges to
Bengal had not his army, convinced they were at the end of the world, refused to go any further. Alexander reluctantly turned back, and died of a fever in
Babylon in
323 BC 323 BC.
Alexander's empire broke up soon after his death, but his conquests permanently changed the Greek world. Thousands of Greeks travelled with him or after him to settle in the new Greek cities he had founded as he advanced, the most important being
Alexandria in
Egypt. Greek-speaking kingdoms in Egypt, Syria, Iran and Bactria were established. The
History of Hellenistic Greece Hellenistic age had begun.
Society
The distinguishing features of ancient Greek society were the division between free and slave, the differing roles of men and women, the relative lack of status distinctions based on birth, and the importance of religion. The way of life of the Athenians was more common in the Greek world than Sparta's special system.
Social Structure
Only free people could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a
city-state. In most city-states, unlike
Ancient Rome Rome, social prominence did not allow special rights. For example, being born in a certain family generally brought no special priviliges. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in the government. In
Athens, the population was divided into four social classes based on wealth. People could change classes if they made more money. In
Sparta, all male citizens were given the title of "equal" if they finished their education. However, Spartan kings who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families.
Slavery in antiquity Slaves had no power or status. They had the right to have a family and own property, however they had no political rights. By
600 BC chattel slavery had spread in
Greece. By the
5th century BC slaves made up one-third of the total population in some city-states. Slaves outside of Sparta almost never revolted because they were made up of too many nationalities and were too scattered to organize.
Most families owned slaves as household servants and laborers, even poor families might have owned one or two slaves. Owners were not allowed to beat or kill their slaves. Owners often promised to free slaves in the future to encourage slaves to work hard. Unlike in Rome, slaves who were freed did not become citizens. Instead, they were mixed into the population of ''
metics'', which included people from foreign countries or other city-states who were officially allowed to live in the state.
City-states also legally owned slaves. These public slaves had a larger measure of independence than slaves owned by families, living on their own and performing specialized tasks. In Athens, public slaves were trained to look out for illegal counterfeit coinage, while temple slaves acted as servants of the temple's deity.
Sparta had a special type of slaves called ''
helots''. Helots were Greek war captives owned by the state and assigned to families. Helots raised food and did household chores so that women could concentrate on raising strong children while men could devote their time to training as
hoplites. Their masters treated them harshly and helots often revolted.
Way of Life
Image:Black slave Louvre Br361.jpg thumb|left|A Greek slave
For a long time, the way of life in the Greek city-states remained the same. People living in cities resided in low
apartment buildings or single-family homes, depending on their wealth. Residences, public buildings, and temples were situated around the
agora. Citizens also lived in small villages and farmhouses scattered across the state's countryside. In Athens, more people lived outside the city walls than inside.
A common Greek household was simple, containing bedrooms, storage rooms, and a kitchen situated around a small inner courtyard. A household consisted of a single set of parents and their children, but generally no relatives. Men were responsible for supporting the family by work or investments in land and commerce. Women were responsible for managing the household's supplies and overseeing slaves, who fetched water in jugs from public
fountains, cooked, cleaned, and looked after babies. Men kept separate rooms for entertaining guests because male visitors were not permitted in rooms where women and children spent most of their time. Wealthy men would sometimes invite friends over for a ''
symposium''. Light came from
olive oil lamps, while heat came from
charcoal braziers. Furniture was simple and sparse, which included wooden chairs, tables, and beds.
Ancient Greek food was simple as well. Poor people mainly ate
barley porridge flavored with
onions,
vegetables, and
cheese or olive oil. Few people ever ate meat regularly, except for the free distributions from
animal sacrifices at state festivals. Bakeries sold fresh
bread daily, while small stands offered snacks.
Wine diluted with
water was a favored beverage.
Greek clothing changed little over time. Both men and women wore loose
tunics. The tunics often had colorful designs and were worn cinched with a belt. People wore cloaks and hats in cold weather, and in warm weather
sandals replaced
leather boots . Women wore
jewellery and
cosmetics - especially powdered lead, which gave them a pale complexion. Men grew beards until
Alexander the Great created a
vogue for
shaving.
Medicine in Ancient Greece was limited.
Hippocrates helped separate superstition from medical treatment in the 5th century BC. Herbal remedies were used to reduce pain, and doctors were able to perform some surgery. But they had no cure for infections, so even healthy people could die quickly from disease at any age.
To keep fit and to be ready for
military service, men exercised daily. Almost every city-state had at least one
gymnasium (ancient Greece) gymnasium, a combination exercise building, running track, bathing facility, lecture hall, and park, open only to males. City-state
festivals provided great amounts of entertainment. Gods were honored with competitions in
music,
drama, and
poetry. Athenians boasted that their city hosted a festival nearly every other day. Huge Panhellenic festivals were held at
Olympia,
Delphi,
Nemea, and
Isthmia. Athletes and musicians who won these competitions became rich and famous. The most popular and expensive competition was
chariot racing.
Education
For most of Greek history, education was private, except in Sparta. During the
Hellenistic period, some city-states established public schools. Only wealthy families could afford a teacher. Boys learned how to read, write and quote literature. They also learned to sing and play one musical instrument and were trained as athletes for military service. They studied not for a job but to become an effective citizen. Girls also learned to read, write and do simple
arithmetic so they could manage the household. They almost never received education after childhood.
A small number of boys continued their education after childhood. While they were teenagers, they studied
philosophy as a moral guide in life, and
rhetoric to help make persuasive speeches in court of a political assembly. In the
Classical period, this training was necessary for an ambitious young man. One important part of a wealthy teenager's education was a
Pederasty in Ancient Greece mentor relationship with an elder. The teenager learned by watching his mentor talking about politics in the agora, helping him perform his public duties, exercising with him in the gymnasium and attending symposia with him. The richest students continued their education to
college, and went to a
university in a large city. These universities were organized by famous teachers. Some of Athen's greatest universities included the
Lyceum and the
Academy.
See also
*
Ancient Olympic Games
*
Architecture of Ancient Greece
*
Art in Ancient Greece
*
Eleusinian Mysteries
*
Fiction set in Ancient Greece
*
Greek literature
*
Greek mathematics
*
Greek mythology
*
Greek philosophy
*
Greek theatre
*
Heraea Games
*
History of Athens
*
History of the Greek language
*
List of ancient Greeks
*
List of ancient Greek cities
*
Timeline of Ancient Greece
{{Classical antiquity}}
Category:Ancient Greece
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:Category category contains articles relating to
ancient Greece.
Ancient Greek culture was not monolithic; it consisted of two completely different strains corresponding to two different peoples, the
Ionia Ionian and the
Dorian.
There is a full category tree as at January 2006 on the talk page. Click
Category talk:Ancient Greece#January 2006 category tree here to view it.
Category:History of Greece
Category:Ancient history Greece
Category:Classical studies Greece
Category:Greece
Category:Civilizations Greece
bg:КатегориÑ?:Древна ГърциÑ?
ca:Categoria:Antiga Grècia
cs:Kategorie:Antické Řecko
de:Kategorie:Griechische Geschichte (Antike)
el:ΚατηγοÏ?ία:ΑÏ?χαία Ελλάδα
es:CategorÃa:Grecia Antigua
fr:Catégorie:Grèce antique
ko:분류:ê³ ëŒ€ 그리스
lb:Category:Aalt Griicheland
nl:Categorie:Griekse oudheid
pl:Kategoria:Starożytna Grecja
pt:Categoria:Grécia antiga
ru:КатегориÑ?:ДревнÑ?Ñ? ГрециÑ?
sk:Kategória:Staroveké Grécko
sl:Kategorija:AntiÄ?na GrÄ?ija
fi:Luokka:Antiikin Kreikka
uk:КатегоріÑ?:СтародавнÑ? ГреціÑ?
zh:Category:�希腊
see :
Ancient Greece
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