Greece |
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Greece as we know it did not exist as a unified country in the Classical World. It's history is a long and varied one with no exact start date as such. Two of the the earliest known tribes/races were the Minoans and Mycenaeans but for most of what is studied under the Classics umbrella we are dealing with the 6th to 5th Centuries B.C. Our information about earlier times tends to come from authors such as Homer with his tales of a past and heroic period. His Iliad and Odyssey recount one of the most famous wars in ancient history that of Troy and the aftermath, the epic voyage of Odysseus on his return home to Ithaca. The events he is relating date to approximately 1200 B.C. to a time when kings ruled Greek cities and tribes. The war itself was one of the very few occasions when the Greek tribes (or Hellenic tribes, as they preferred) united against a common enemy the barbarian East. The Classical period was dominated by city-states where individual towns/cities 'ruled' their surrounding area and colonies. Two of the most significant in this period were Athens and Sparta. Each of these had opposing systems of government - Sparta was under the control of kings whilst Athens developed, over a period of time, democracy. This was in its truest sense where every male citizen took an active role in the running of his city and its state, and these citizens could elect the generals etc. One of the most famous generals in Athens was Perikles and it was during his period of supremacy that Athens underwent some of its most significant building works. Ancient Greece was the birthplace for some of the most important religious, political, cultural and philosophical ideas which still permeate modern society.
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