Sub-Mycenaean Period and Early Iron Age
Minoans and Myceneans
The Mycenaean civilization was patriarchal and the people were
warriors. Around 1250 BCE the city of Troy in northern Turkey was raided. Stories of the Trojan War were passed
down for hundreds of years by singers until being written down by the
poet Homer around 700 BCE.
Trojan Horse
During this time they began to have kings. Some Greeks learned to
write, in a sort of hieroglyphics called Linear
B.
Geometric Period (c1000-900 BCE)
The Geometric period was given that name because of the way in which
pottery was decorated, in plain angular patterns
Archaic Period (c900-510 BCE)
Emergence of the city-state across Greece and new styles of warfare,
art and politics. New colonies established by the Greeks in Italy,
Egypt, Asia Minor and the Black sea.
In 776 BCE were held the first Olympic Games in Olympia.
Classical Period (c510-336 BCE)
Greek city-states flourish until overshadowed by the powerful
Macedonian kings. The Athenian statesman Cleisthenes (570-508 BCE) is regarded as the founder of Athenian democracy.
In 431 BCE Ancient Greece was a large collection of rival city-states.
The Persian Wars (499-479 BCE)
547 BCE: Ionian Greek colonies in Asia Minor fall under Persian rule.
499 BCE: Ionian Greek colonies revolt against Persian rule. Fellow
Greeks (specifically, Athens) sent troops to support this revolt.
493 BCE: Darius the Great of Persia suppresses the revolt.
King Darius sought revenge on the Athenians and the Eretrians, Greeks
who had previously backed the Ionian revolt against Persian rule. In
490 BC, King Darius led his Persian army in an attack on Greece which
resulted in the Battle of Marathon. For eight days, the two armies
stood confronting each other at Marathon. On the ninth day, the
Persians started an advance.
The Persians were the larger army, however, their fighting style was
defensive. Their main weapon was the bow and arrow, and their
key tactic was to wait until the enemy came close, at which time the
Persians would “bury” them a heavy barrage of bows and
arrows. The Athenians, had a new way of fighting which was a
more offensive fighting style. Their main weapon was the long,
heavy spear, and they shielded themselves with heavy armament
including helmets, shields, and breastplates. They favored close
combat battle formations, lacking both cavalry and bows.
Athens would win the battle and the Persians would sail away in
defeat. This battle is considered one of the most important events
marking the birth of European culture.
Ten years later, the Persians, with their king Xerxes (ZERK-sees)
attacked the Greece mainland. This time most of the cities in Greece
banded together and formed a league to fight the Persians.
The Spartans and Athenians fought side by side. The Greeks and
Persians had almost equal troop numbers. However, the Persian fleet
outnumbered the Greek ships three to one.
The Greeks lost their first battle, at Thermopylae
(therm-AH-pill-aye), but they won after that, a great naval victory
at Salamis
and in the spring of 479 BCE a battle at Plataea.
Again the Persians went home defeated.
After the Persian Wars, most of the Greek city-states became allied
with either Athens or Sparta. Athens was a great naval power and
Sparta relied on its army for superiority. In 431 BCE these alliances
went to war against each other in a conflict called the Peloponnesian
War. The war lasted 27 years and is named for the Peloponnesus,
the peninsula on which Sparta is located.
The result of the war was crushing defeat of Athens and its maritime
empire. The long term result was the weakening of all the
city-states. This made them weak and vulnerable to a takeover by Macedonia.
King Philip of Macedon had noticed that the Greeks were very weak. He would attack Greece and little by little he take it over until he would rule Greece. King Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE.
Hellenistic Period (336 - 31BCE)
Hellenistic Period, a combination of Greek and western Asian
cultures, lasts from the accession of Alexander the Great to the
throne of Macedon in 336 BCE time until the beginning of the
Christian era.
This was the time of the great philosophers Socrates and his student Plato.
Alexander
the Great (356 BCE.-323 BCE)
Alexander was 20 years old when he became king.. Before his death,
Alexander was the ruler of the largest empire the world had seen. In
323 BCE, Alexander the Great dies at Babylon.
Ancient Greece map Alexander the Great Empire BCE 331-301
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