Skip to Main Content

History Atlas

How The Past Is Known

Sign In

Text size

100%

Theme

Switch Atlas

Interactive AtlasThe Family Home

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Civilization

Ancient Greece

Also Known As Hellenic Civilization · Hellas

Ancient Greece refers to the Greek speaking world of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean from the Archaic period of the eighth century BCE through the Hellenistic period that followed Alexander the Great's conquests in the fourth century BCE. Rather than a single unified state, it was a shifting collection of independent city states, or poleis, the most influential of which, Athens and Sparta, developed sharply different political systems, direct democracy in Athens and a militarized oligarchy in Sparta. Greek civilization produced foundational work in philosophy, through figures such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, in drama and history writing, in mathematics and astronomy, and in art and architecture whose forms, including the classical orders of columns, shaped Western building for millennia afterward. Greek culture and language spread across the eastern Mediterranean and Near East after Alexander's conquests, forming the Hellenistic world that Rome later absorbed and that carried Greek learning into the Roman and, eventually, Byzantine and Islamic worlds.

Facts

Region

The Aegean and eastern Mediterranean 1

End Year

146 BCE 2

Greek political independence is conventionally ended by the Roman conquest of Greece and the sack of Corinth in 146 BCE, though Greek language and culture continued to flourish under Roman and later Byzantine rule.

Disputed

Start Year

800 BCE 1

As with the era it opens, historians vary between 800, 776 and 750 BCE for the start of the Archaic Greek world; none of these is a single dated event.

Connections

In Era

Classical Antiquity

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Ruled By

Alexander the Great

As King of Macedon and Hegemon of the Hellenic League, ruling within the wider Greek world; his empire also extended far beyond it.

Source The Cambridge Ancient History

In the Other Atlases

Influenced

Also in Geography Atlas: which this subject influenced.

Nationals Include

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Artemidorus of Daldis

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Euclid of Megara

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Nicomachus of Gerasa

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Divinity Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Diogenes of Sinope

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Also in Philosophy Atlas: a national of this subject.

Found In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source

2. The Cambridge Ancient History

Cambridge University Press

The Histories

Books 1 to 9

Wikipedia: Ancient Greece

Wikipedialead section

Quote, lead section

Ancient Greece (Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was an ancient civilization.

View the Source

Take a Related Quiz

Historical Civilizations: BeginnerIncludes a question about Ancient Greece.

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.