Declaration of Independence, American
The document or declaration of independence marked America’s final revolt against Great Britain in the late 1700's. This document secured the rights that all men are created equal.
Related
Dead Sea Scrolls
Which were the dark ages?
Greece
Most Viewed in History
Crimean War
The Ancient Egypt writings
Geography info: Gypsies, People, Roma
Gravestones in Ancient Greece were carved in relief with portraits of the people commemorated, often showing them in some familiar scene from their lifetime. Stones such as these, and other findings, have yielded valuable information for archaeologists looking into the past.
The Ancient Greeks were skilled and hardy sailors. In ships like the one pictured on this page, they explored the Mediterranean Sea and spread their knowledge and culture to all parts of the Ancient world. The voyages of Ulysses are the subject of Homer's Odyssey, one of the greatest epic poems of Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was invaded and settled by several waves of people, Minoans, Achaeans, Dorians. They intermarried and developed the Greek language. By 1500 B.C. there were flourishing cities inhabited by Greek-speaking people on the mainland of Asia Minor and around the shores of the Black Sea, as well as in Greece.
Greece is a mountainous country with a long, indented coastline and communication between one valley and another is difficult. Consequently, separate city-states grew up. Owing to the scarcity of fertile land in this mountainous country many took to the sea as fishermen and traders. They began to settle overseas, as far away as Sicily and Marseilles. The cities they founded traded with their parent city, sending wheat to Greece and importing olives, one of Greece's main products.
The practice of politics was the outstanding Greek gift to the world. The Greek word for a city-state is 'polis' and the word 'polities' comes from this. The city-states tried every type of government, including monarchy, aristocracy and tyranny, but the most widely practiced was democracy. For example, in Athens every male citizen had a voice and a vote in running the city. The city was so small that everyone could meet and discuss public affairs. But women, slaves and foreigners had no part in government. Sparta was quite different. It was organized for war, the Spartans feared the helots whose land they ruled. Girls as well as boys were trained for a hard life without comfort or the pleasures of art and literature. Sparta alone among Greek states had no beautiful buildings or works of art.
In the fifth century B.C. some of the Greek cities of Asia Minor revolted against the huge Persian Empire. Athens helped them and was attacked by the Persians. The little Athenian army, astonishingly, defeated the Persians at the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.). There was peace for ten years. Then Xerxes, the Persian king, invaded Greece. At the pass of Thermopylae a handful of Spartans held up the Persian advance while Athens was evacuated. The Athenian fleet defeated the Persian navy in a great sea battle at Salamis.
After the defeat of Persia there was a marvelous flowering of Greek culture, especially in Athens. The Parthenon, a perfectly proportioned temple, was built on the Acropolis between 447 and 438 B.C. Sculptors like Phidias (490-432) and dramatists like Aeschylus (525-456) and Sophocles (495-406) delighted the Athenians with their works. Philosophy, the study of truth and clear thinking, reached a peak with the teaching of Socrates (469-399) and his pupil Plato (428-347). Herodotus (484-?) and Thucydides (471-C.402) wrote the first real histories.
Athens built up an empire, the Confederacy of Delos, whose members had to pay for a common fleet, but in doing so she made enemies. In 431 B.C. Sparta joined the Athenians' enemies and the long Peloponnesian war began. Under the outstanding statesman Pericles, Athens was at first successful, but she was ultimately defeated in 405 and had to admit a Spartan garrison.
The Greek city-states never learned to live together in peace. The Olympian Games which took place every four years and the Oracle at Delphi were the only things which all Greeks shared and respected. Wars continued until Philip, king of Macedon, defeated Thebes and Athens and united Greece in 338 B.C. Macedonia was a mountainous state to the north.
Philip planned to conquer the Persian empire, but he was assassinated. His son Alexander carried out the plan. Alexander was educated by Plato's pupil, the philosopher, Aristotle (384-322). In thirteen years Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and Persia. He even reached the river Indus. Alexander founded seventy new Greek cities, from which Greek ideas and art spread throughout the Middle East. Alexandria in Egypt is the most famous of these cities. Alexander died in 323 B.C.
