II.

A Historical Overview

Historians have divided Greek history into periods that are in some ways based on individual judgment, and the names and dates of those periods vary from one account to another. Without question, however, the roots of Greek culture lie in Mycenaean culture, which lasted from about 1600 to about 1100 bc. This was a time of warrior-kings, fortified cities, and palaces, a time when highly developed monumental art and architecture first flourished on the Greek mainland and bureaucrats wrote in an early form of Greek called Linear B. This era has become known as the age of heroes, through such stories as those of Achilles and Odysseus that Greek poet Homer later recorded in his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey (8th century bc). Many of the Greek gods (see Greek Mythology) were first worshiped in the Mycenaean age, and the remains of Mycenaean architecture and other artifacts fueled the imagination of later Greeks.

Mycenaeans built simple houses of a type that the Greeks continued to build long after the Bronze Age ended. And Mycenaean workshops established a tradition of painted pottery that continued without interruption, though not without great changes, into later periods. In short, much of Mycenaean culture carried over into later Greek society.

A.

The Dark Age (1100?-750 bc)

At the end of the Bronze Age, invaders, civil wars, or wars between kingdoms destroyed most Mycenaean centers of power, and Greece entered a period of relative impoverishment, depopulation, and cultural isolation known as the Dark Age. The art of writing was lost for most of the Dark Age, and few notable artifacts of the period remain. During this time, Greece seems to have been a land of small farming communities that had little to do with one another.

Yet the term Dark Age masks some real achievements. Archaeological finds on the island of Euboea have shown that at least parts of Greece prospered and enjoyed extensive contact with cultures to the east. During the Dark Age, Greeks settled Ionia, a tradition of oral epic poetry (that probably began in the Mycenaean age) continued to develop, and artisans in Athens produced an abstract style of painted pottery called protogeometric (meaning “first geometric”). The precision and harmony of the painting on this pottery foretell the character of later Greek art.

The last 200 years or so of the Dark Age, from about 950 to about 750 bc, are called the Geometric period, a term that refers to a primarily abstract style of pottery decoration of the time. During the Geometric period the Greeks came into closer contact with cultures of the Near East, and traders and artisans from Phoenicia (along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea) settled in parts of Greece itself. The Greeks probably adapted their alphabet from a Phoenician model around 800 bc; the earliest surviving examples of written Greek date to soon after that.

The Geometric period also saw the emergence of independently governed city-states. Marked by rugged mountains, valleys, and a jagged coastline, the geography of Greece did not promote unity. During most of its ancient history, Greece was a disunited land of scattered city-states, and wars between the city-states probably first occurred by the end of the 8th century bc. Although the rise of the city-state emphasizes the Greeks’ political disunity, other developments demonstrate their cultural unity. For example, religious sanctuaries (sites for temples and other buildings devoted to the gods) such as Olympia drew people from every Greek city-state who came to dedicate offerings to the gods and to compete in the Olympic Games, which tradition says began in 776 bc. The epic poet Homer, who perhaps lived in the mid- to late-8th century bc, also expressed Greek unity through stories that involve all Greeks. The 8th century also saw Greek expansion into southern Italy and Sicily, where city-states from the Greek mainland established their first colonies.

B.

The Archaic Period (750-480 bc)

The period from 750 bc to 480 bc is called the Archaic period. Contact with Near Eastern cultures had influenced Greek art in the Dark Age, but after about 750 bc these influences on the art and culture of Greece became particularly visible. Eastern imports to Greece were plentiful, as were Greek imitations of eastern objects or motifs, and trade with lands to both east and west led to new prosperity for Greece. Also during this era, tyrannies appeared for the first time in Greece. Powerful dictators took over from aristocracies that had governed many of the city-states. New battle tactics, which used masses of heavily armed foot soldiers, may have aided the tyrants’ rise.

New city-states took shape during the 6th century bc, while many existing city-states became more powerful and more competitive with each other. Monumental building programs became part of this competition, as each community attempted to establish itself as culturally superior. City-states competed to erect the most beautiful buildings at religious sanctuaries such as Delphi that were panhellenic—that is, they were sacred to all of Greece, not to any one city-state. The city-state of Athens was ruled by a hereditary aristocracy and had avoided tyranny in the 7th century. In the second half of the 6th century a mild tyranny took over, but by century's end Athenians had established a limited democracy (representative government).

However, a threat to Athenian democracy developed in the East, where Persia expanded into Ionia and to the rim of the Aegean Sea. The Persian Wars, between Persia and Greece, broke out in the early 5th century, and decisive battles in 480 and 479 bc ended in victory for Athens and the Greeks.

C.

The Classical Period (480-323 bc)

Athens established an empire of its own after the Persian Wars, and rivalry between Athens and the city-state of Sparta dominated the history of 5th-century Greece. The struggle between these two city-states and their allies ultimately led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 bc), which Sparta won. Despite this conflict, the 5th century, often called the Classical period, is usually considered the culmination of Greek art, architecture, and drama, with its highest achievements being the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Parthenon in Athens, and the plays of Athenian dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.

The 4th century, or Late Classical period, was the great era of Greek philosophy, represented by Plato and Aristotle. Greek city-states, above all Sparta, Thebes, and a resurgent Athens, engaged in almost constant warfare until 338 bc, when Philip II of Macedonia and his young son Alexander defeated the Greeks, finally ending the era of powerful independent city-states. From 334 to 323 bc, Alexander the Great extended his father's empire into Asia Minor (now Turkey), Syria, Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, and as far as India.

D.

The Hellenistic Period (323-31 bc)

Although Alexander the Great extended Greek civilization far beyond the Greek mainland and the boundaries of the Aegean Sea, his empire did not survive his death in 323. After Alexander died, his generals and successors divided the empire into a number of kingdoms: Ptolemy I and his descendents ruled Egypt, Seleucus I established a dynasty in Asia, and Antigonus I ruled in Macedonia. Philetaeros carved the small but wealthy kingdom of Pergamum out of northwestern Asia Minor in the 3rd century bc. These were called Hellenistic (“Greek-like”) kingdoms, because the ruling classes spoke Greek and the official culture was Greek. The term Hellenistic is derived from the Greek word Hellen meaning “Greek.”

In mainland Greece, federations of city-states, such as the Achaean League, increasingly dominated politics, but in the 2nd century bc Rome began to exert its influence. In 146 bc Rome defeated the Achaean League, destroyed the important Greek city of Corinth, and established itself as the dominant power in Greece. Athens and other Greek cities intermittently resisted the Romans at first, but to no avail. One by one, Rome also defeated the Hellenistic kingdoms. The Hellenistic period ended in 31 bc, when Rome defeated Egypt, the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms, in the Battle of Actium.