The world History

(His205)
Ancient Greece
Submitted to:
Dr. Niladri Chatterjee (NCH)
Assistant Professor
Department of History & Philosophy
Submitted By:

Md.Zayedul Haque 1420881030

Salman Kabir 1510289630
Farhana Rashed 1511252630
Mohammad 1511735030
Rasheduzzaman
Shyam Kumar Banik 1512570030
Samiur Rahman Khan 1521371631
Sajjad Hossen 1530352030
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Mishal Maleque 1530726630
Section- 3
Table of content
Content Page
1) Introduction 3

2) Different Periods 4-7

 Neolithic period
 Bronze Age
 Archaic Period
 Classical Period
 Hellenistic Period
 Byzantine Empire
 A New Rome

3) Geography of ancient Greece 8

4) Timeline of Ancient Greece 9

5) The dark ages of Greek 9-10

6) Achievements 11

7) History of the Greek language Greek Alphabet 11-12

8) Gods & Goddesses of Greek mythology 12-14

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 9) Conclusion 15

Introduction

Western civilization owes a great debt to the Greeks. The list of Greek contributions is long. In

politics the Greeks gave western world rule by the people and the first democratic constitution.

In science the Greeks contributed the scientific method and many of the basic rules of geometry.

In philosophy they contributed new ways of thinking. In arts the Greeks contributed the play,

both tragedy and comedy. They also created new styles of architecture and magnificent

sculpture. From the Greeks came the Olympic fames and athletic competition in such events as

wrestling, boxing, discus throwing, and running. The Greeks were the first to believe in the

freedom and worth of the individual. Greek civilization developed out of a combination of two

early civilizations, minioans and mycenean. The Minioans, who were also known as Cretans,

were a seafaring people. Their civilization arose around 2800 BC on Crete, an island in the

Mediterranen Sea.

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Different periods
Neolithic period (6000-2900BC)

According to historians and archeological findings, the Neolithic Age in Greece lasted from 6800
to 3200 BC. The most domesticated settlements were in Near East of Greece. They traveled
mainly due to overpopulation. These people introduced pottery and animal husbandry in Greece.
They may as well have traveled via the route of Black sea into Thrace, which then further leads
to Macedonia, Thessaly, and Boeotia etc. The second way of traveling into Greece is from one
island to another and such type of colonies has been found in Knossos and Kythnos.

The main characteristics of this era are the climate stabilization and the settlements of people.
The Neolithic Revolution arrives with these people who traveled from Anatolia, Turkey. The
economy of the region became steady with organized and methodical farming, stock rearing
and, bartering and sculptures like pottery. People stopped traveling from region to region and
permanent settlements in Greece. They domesticated animals like sheep and goats and grew
plants and crops. They made their bases around sites where there was ample water supply and
in open landscapes. The Neolithic Greece people can be said as the first “farmers” and their
lives were less complex and simple.

Bronze Age (2900-2000 BC)

The Greek Bronze Age or the Early Helladic Era started around 2800 BC and lasted till 1050
BC in Crete while in the Aegean islands it started in 3000 BC. The Bronze Age in Greece is
divided into periods such as Helladic I, II. The information that is available today on the
Bronze Age in Greece is from the architecture, burial styles and lifestyle. The colonies were
made of 300 to 1000 people.

The Bronze Age is known as so because of the invention and introduction of the metal bronze.
This metal made its entry into Greece in 3000 BC, but it did not make its impact as soon as it
arrived. The people from Dimini from the Neolithic era that had settled in Greece slowly
started the use of Bronze. Knives and swords were carved from the metal. This metal was more
easy to use than stone, bone or wood. Metals such as gold, silver and lead arrived at the same
time as bronze.

Archaic Period (750-500 BC)

The Archaic Period in Greece refers to the years between 750 and 480 B.C., more particularly
from 620 to 480 B.C. The age is defined through the development of art at this time,

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specifically through the style of pottery and sculpture, showing the specific characteristics that
would later be developed into the more naturalistic style of the Classical period. The Archaic is
one of five periods that Ancient Greek history can be divided into; it was preceded by the Dark
Ages and followed by the Classical period. The Archaic period saw advancements in political
theory, especially the beginnings of democracy, as well as in culture and art. The knowledge
and use of written language which was lost in the Dark Ages was re-established.

Classical Period (500-336 BC) - Classical period of ancient Greek history, is fixed
between about 500 B. C., when the Greeks began to come into conflict with the kingdom of
Persia to the east, and the death of the Macedonian king and conqueror Alexander the Great in
323 B.C. In this period Athens reached its greatest political and cultural heights: the full
development of the democratic system of government under the Athenian statesman Pericles;
the building of the Parthenon on the Acropolis; the creation of the tragedies of Sophocles,
Aeschylus and Euripides; and the founding of the philosophical schools of Socrates and Plato.

Hellenistic Period:
The Hellenistic Age marks the transformation of Greek society from the localized and
introverted city-states to an open, cosmopolitan, and at times exuberant culture that permeated
the entire eastern Mediterranean, and Southwest Asia. While the Hellenistic world incorporated
a number of different people, Greek thinking, mores, and way of life dominated the public
affairs of the time. All aspects of culture took a Greek hue, with the Greek language being
established as the official language of the Hellenistic world. The art and literature of the era
were transformed accordingly. Instead of the previous preoccupation with the Ideal, Hellenistic
art focused on the Real. Depictions of man in both art and literature revolved around exuberant,
and often amusing themes that for the most part explored the daily life and the emotional world
of humans, gods, and heroes alike.

Byzantine Empire:
The origins of the great civilization known as the Byzantine Empire can be traced to 330 A.D.,
when the Roman emperor Constantine I dedicated a “new Rome” on the site of the ancient
Greek colony of Byzantium. Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell
in 476, the eastern half survived for 1,000 more years, spawning a rich tradition of art, literature
and learning and serving as a military buffer between the states of Europe and the threat of
invasion from Asia. The Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed
Constantinople during the reign of Constantine XI.

A New Rome
The term “Byzantine” derives from Byzantium, an ancient Greek colony founded by a man
named Byzas. Located on the European side of the Bosporus (the strait linking the Black Sea to

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the Mediterranean), the site of Byzantium was ideally located to serve as a transit and trade
point between Europe and Asia Minor. In 330 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine I chose
Byzantium as the site of a new Roman capital, Constantinople. Five years earlier, at the
Council of Nicaea, Constantine had established Christianity (once an obscure Jewish sect) as
Rome’s official religion. The citizens of Constantinople and the rest of the Eastern Roman
Empire identified strongly as Romans and Christians, though many of them spoke Greek and
not Latin.

Though Constantine ruled over a unified Roman Empire, this unity proved illusory after his
death in 337. In 364, Emperor Valentinian I again divided the empire into western and eastern
sections, putting himself in power in the west and his brother Valens in the east. The fate of the
two regions diverged greatly over the next several centuries. In the west, constant attacks from
German invaders such as the Visigoths broke the struggling empire down piece by piece until
Italy was the only territory left under Roman control. In 476, the barbarian Odoacer overthrew
the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, and Rome had fallen.

Survival of the Byzantine Empire

The eastern half of the Roman Empire proved less vulnerable to external attack, thanks in part
to its geographic location. With Constantinople located on a strait, it was extremely difficult to
breach the capital’s defenses; in addition, the eastern empire had a much shorter common
frontier with Europe. It also benefited greatly from a stronger administrative center and internal
political stability, as well as great wealth compared with other states of the early medieval
period. The eastern emperors were able to exert more control over the empire’s economic
resources and more effectively muster sufficient manpower to combat invasion. As a result of
these advantages, the Eastern Roman Empire–variously known as the Byzantine Empire or
Byzantium–was able to survive for centuries after the fall of Rome.

Though Byzantium was ruled by Roman law and Roman political institutions, and its official
language was Latin, Greek was also widely spoken, and students received education in Greek
history, literature and culture. In terms of religion, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 officially
established the division of the Christian world into five patriarchates, each ruled by a patriarch:
Rome (where the patriarch would later call himself pope), Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch
and Jerusalem. The Byzantine emperor was the patriarch of Constantinople, and the head of
both church and state. (After the Islamic empire absorbed Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem
in the seventh century, the Byzantine emperor would become the spiritual leader of most
eastern Christians.)

The Byzantine Empire Under Justinian

Justinian I, who took power in 527 and would rule until his death in 565, was the first great
ruler of the Byzantine Empire. During the years of his reign, the empire included most of the

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land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, as Justinian’s armies conquered part of the former
Western Roman Empire, including North Africa. Many great monuments of the empire would
be built under Justinian, including the domed Church of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia (532-
37 A.D.). Justinian also reformed and codified Roman law, establishing a Byzantine legal code
that would endure for centuries and help shape the modern concept of the state.

At the time of Justinian’s death, the Byzantine Empire reigned supreme as the largest and most
powerful state in Europe. Debts incurred through war had left the empire in dire financial
straits, however, and his successors were forced to heavily tax Byzantine citizens in order to
keep the empire afloat. In addition, the imperial army was stretched too thin, and would
struggle in vain to maintain the territory conquered during Justinian’s rule. During the seventh
and eighth centuries, attacks by Persians and Slavs, combined with internal political instability
and economic regression, threatened the empire. A new, even more serious threat arose in the
form of Islam, founded by the prophet Muhammad in Mecca in 622. In 634, Muslim armies
began their assault on the Byzantine Empire by storming into Syria. By the end of the century,
Byzantium would lose Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt and North Africa (among other territories)
to Islamic forces.

From Iconoclasm to Monasticism

During the eighth and early ninth centuries, Byzantine emperors (beginning with Leo III in
730) spearheaded a movement that denied the holiness of icons, or religious images, and
prohibited their worship or veneration. Known as Iconoclasm–literally “the smashing of
images”–the movement waxed and waned under various rulers, but did not end definitively
until 843, when a Church council under Emperor Michael III ruled in favor of the display of
religious images.

During the late 10th and early 11th centuries, under the rule of the Macedonian dynasty
founded by Michael III’s successor, Basil, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed a golden age. Though
it stretched over less territory, Byzantium had more control over trade, more wealth and more
international prestige than under Justinian. The strong imperial government patronized the arts,
restored churches, palaces and other cultural institutions and promoted the study of ancient
Greek history and literature. Greek became the official language of the state, and a flourishing
culture of monasticism centered on Mount Athos in northeastern Greece. Monks administered
many institutions (orphanages, schools, hospitals) in everyday life, and Byzantine missionaries
won many converts to Christianity among the Slavic peoples of the central and eastern Balkans
(including Bulgaria and Serbia) and Russia.

Byzantium and the Crusades

The end of the 11th century saw the beginning of the Crusades, the series of holy wars waged
by Western Christians against Muslims in the Near East from 1095 to 1291. With the Seijuk

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Turks of central Asia bearing down on Constantinople, Emperor Alexius I turned to the West
for help, resulting in the declaration of “holy war” by Pope Urban II at Clermont (France) that
began the First Crusade. As armies from France, Germany and Italy poured into Byzantium,
Alexius tried to force their leaders to swear an oath of loyalty to him in order to guarantee that
land regained from the Turks would be restored to his empire. After Western and Byzantine
forces recaptured Nicaea in Asia Minor from the Turks, Alexius and his army retreated,
drawing accusations of betrayal from the Crusaders.

During the subsequent Crusades, animosity continued to build between Byzantium and the
West, culminating in the conquest and looting of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in
1204. The Latin regime established in Constantinople existed on shaky ground due to the open
hostility of the city’s population and its lack of money. Many refugees from Constantinople
fled to Nicaea, site of a Byzantine government-in-exile that would retake the capital and
overthrow Latin rule in 1261.

Geography of ancient Greece:

The geographical coverage of Ancient Greek civilization changed markedly during it’s history.
Its origins were in the land of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea, plus the west coast of
Asia Minor. This is a landscape of mountains and sea. Land useful for farming is found in valley
bottoms, hedged in by steep slopes, or on small islands, confined by water. As a result, ancient
Greece consisted of many small territories, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and
identity. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on narrow coastal plains,
and only dominated a limited area around them. These "city-states" were fiercely independent of
each other. From about 750 BC the Greeks began sending out colonies in all direction, settling
the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. By around 600 BC Greek
city-states could be found, "like frogs round a pond", as one Greek writer put it, from the coasts
of Spain in the west to Cyprus in the east, and as far north as present day Ukraine and Russia and
as far south as the Egypt and Libya. Sicily and Southern Italy above all became a major locus for
Greek colonization, and this region was known to the Romans as "Magna Graeca".

Later, the conquests of Alexander the Great took Greek civilization right across the Middle East.
There it mingled with the more ancient cultures of that region to form a hybrid civilization which
scholars label "Hellenistic" civilization. This is described in a separate article; here we shall
focus on the original Greek civilization.

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Timeline of Ancient Greece:
 776 BC: Traditional date for the first Olympic Games

 750: Greek cities start planting colonies on other Mediterranean coasts, adapt the Phoenician
alphabet for their own use, and later adopt metal coinage from Lydia, in Asia Minor

 594: Solon gives Athens a new constitution; this is the start of the rise of democracy in Greece

 490-479: The Persian Wars - Athens and Sparta lead the Greeks in defending their land against
invasion from the huge Persian Empire

 447: Work begins on the Parthenon in Athens, then at the height of its glory

 431-404: The Second Peloponnesian War - Athens is defeated by Sparta, which now becomes

the leading power in Greece

 399: The Athenian philosopher Socrates is condemned to death for questioning conventional

ideas

 338: King Philip II of Macedon defeats the Greek city-states and imposes his dominion on them.

The Dark Ages of Greece (1100-800 BC)

The Dark Ages of Greece dramatically illustrate the historical principal that cultures can decline
and the future may not be as prosperous as the past. The period from 1100 to 800 B.C. is known
as the Dark Age of Greece. As described in the Ancient Greek Thesaurus: Throughout the area
there are signs of a sharp cultural decline. Some sites, formerly inhabited, were now abandoned.
Pottery was much less elegant; burials were made without expensive ornaments; and the
construction of massive buildings came to a halt. Even the art of writing in Linear B vanished.
The palace-centered bureaucracies no longer existed, but of the political machinery that replaced
them we know almost nothing. The old major settlements were abandoned, and the population
dropped dramatically in numbers. Within these three hundred years, the people of Greece lived
in small groups that moved constantly in accordance with their new pastoral lifestyle and
livestock needs, while they left no written record behind leading to the conclusion that they were
illiterate. Later in the Dark Ages (between 950 and 750 BCE), Greeks relearned how to write
once again, but this time instead of using the Linear B script used by the Mycenaeans, they
adopted the alphabet used by the Phoenicians “innovating in a fundamental way by introducing
vowels as letters. The Greek version of the alphabet eventually formed the base of the alphabet
used for English today.”

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Greek Science:
Thales of Miletus is regarded by many as the father of science; he was the first Greek
philosopher to seek to explain the physical world in terms of natural rather than supernatural
causes.

Science in Ancient Greece was based on logical thinking and mathematics. It was also based on
technology and everyday life. The arts in Ancient Greece were sculptors and painters. The
Greeks wanted to know more about the world, the heavens and themselves. People studied about
the sky, sun, moon, and the planets. The Greeks found that the earth was round.

Eratosthenes of Alexandria, who died about 194 BC, wrote on astronomy and geography, but his
work is known mainly from later summaries. He is credited with being the first person to
measure the Earth's circumference.

Botany
Greek influence on agriculture was the establishment of the science of botany. Botany is the
study of all aspects of plant life, including where plants live and how they grow. The Greek
philosopher Aristotle, who lived during the 300's BC, collected information about most of the
plants known at that time in the world. He also studied other sciences and math.

His student Theophrastus classified and named these plants. Theophrastus often called the father
of botany. Aristotle and Theophrastus developed an extremely important type of science that is
studied all over the world. Botany is so important because all the food that animals and people
eat comes from plants, whether it be directly or indirectly.

Earth Science
Earth science is the study of the earth and its origin and development. It deals with the physical
makeup and structure of the Earth. The most extensive fields of Earth science, geology, has an
ancient history.

Ancient Greek philosophers proposed many theories to account for the from and origin of the
Earth. Eratosthenes, a scientist of ancient Greece, made the first accurate measurement of the
Earth's diameter. The ancient Greek philosophers were amazed by volcanoes and earthquakes.
They made many attempts to explain them, but most of these attempts to explain these
phenomena sound very strange to most people today. For example, Aristotle, speculated that

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earthquakes resulted from winds within the Earth caused by the Earth's own heat and heat from
the sun. Volcanoes, he thought, marked the points at which these winds finally escaped from
inside the Earth into the atmosphere.

Earth science allows us to locate metal and mineral deposits. Earth scientists study fossils. This
helps provide information about evolution and the development of the earth. Earth science helps
in locating fossil fuels, such as oil. These fuels compose a major part of the world economy. The
Greeks came up with the idea of earth science, and most importantly laid the foundation for the
scientists who lived hundreds of years after their time.

Achievements:
During the 26th Dynasty of Egypt (c. 685–525 BCE), the ports of the Nile were opened for the
first time to Greek trade. Important Greek figures such as Thales and Pythagoras visited Egypt,
and brought with them new skills and knowledge. Ionia, in addition to Egyptian influence, was
exposed to the culture and ideas of Mesopotamia through its neighbor, the kingdom of Lydia.

According to Greek tradition, the process of replacing the notion of supernatural explanation
with the concept of a universe that is governed by laws of nature begins in Ionia. Thales of
Miletus, about 600 BCE first developed the idea that the world can be explained without
resorting to supernatural explanations. It is high likely that the astronomical knowledge that
Thales got from Egyptian and Babylonian astronomy allowed him to predict a solar eclipse
which took place in May 28th 585 BCE.

Anaximander, another Ionian, argued that since human infants are helpless at birth, if the first
human had somehow appeared on earth as an infant, it would not have survived. Anaximander
reasoned that people must, therefore, have evolved from other animals whose young are hardier.
It was Empedocles who first taught an early form of evolution and survival of the fittest. He
believed that originally “countless tribes of mortal creatures were scattered abroad endowed with
all manner of forms, a wonder to behold”, but in the end, only certain forms were able to survive.

History of the Greek language Greek Alphabet

The Greek language has a long and rich history stretching all the way from the thirteenth century
B.C. to the present. The earliest form of the language is called "Linear B" (13th century B.C.).
The form of Greek used by writers from Homer (8th century B.C.) through Plato (4th century
B.C.) is called "Classical Greek." It was a marvelous form of the language, capable of exact

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expression and subtle nuances. Its alphabet was derived from the Phoenician’s as was that of
Hebrew. Classical Greek existed in many dialects of which three were primary: Doric, Aeolic,
and Ionic (of which Attic was a branch).
The Greek alphabet has twenty-four letters. (There were several more, but they dropped out of
use before the classical period. In some cases their influence can still be felt, especially in verbs.)
At first it is only important to learn the English name, small letters, and pronunciation. The
transliterations will help. (A transliteration is the equivalent of a letter in another language. For
example, the Greek "beta" [β] is transliterated with the English "b." This does not mean that a
similar combination of letters in one language has the same meaning as the same combination in
another. κατ does not mean "cat." But the Greek "β" and the English "b" have the same sounds
and often similar functions, and therefore it is said that the English "b" is the transliteration of the
Greek "beta."

Gods & Goddesses of Greek mythology:

Apollo
Apollo was the son of Leto and Zeus. He was born on the island of Delos.
He and his twin sister Artemis, also an Olympian, shared an aptitude for archery. The nine
Muses were companions of his; they were goddesses known for inspiring art and music.

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Ares
He was the son of Zeus and Hera, both of whom hated him (according to Homer).
Eros (more commonly known as Cupid) was the child of Ares and Aphrodite. Ares was most
notably referred to as the God of War; he represented the unpleasant aspects of battle.

Dionysus
Dionysus was primarily known as the God of the Vine.
Upon reaching adulthood, Dionysus wandered the Earth, teaching men the culture of the vine.
Dionysus was the last god to enter Olympus.

Hades
He was also called the God of Wealth or “the rich one” because he possessed the precious metals
of the earth.

Hephaestus
Hephaestus was known as the God of Fire.

Hermes
Hermes was considered a “trickster” due to his cunning and clever personality.
He primarily served as the herald or messenger of the gods.

Poseidon
Poseidon was allotted his dominion after the fall of the Titans.
He wielded the trident or three-pronged spear, and this image of him is reflected in art. Poseidon
was most notably the God of the sea and the protector of all waters.

Zeus
Zeus was the father of the famous Greek hero Hercules.
The name Zeus means “bright” or “sky.”
His weapon of choice was the thunderbolt, made for him by the Cyclops.

Aphrodite
Aphrodite was the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty.

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Artemis
Artemis was daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin sister of Apollo.
She was primarily a virgin huntress, goddess of wildlife and patroness of hunters.
She was an important goddess in the lives of women, especially when it came to marriage and
young creatures.

Athena
Athena was the Goddess of War, the female counterpart of Ares.

Demeter
She was the goddess of harvest and fertility.

Hera
Hera was Queen of the Olympian gods.

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 Conclusion: After the Peloponnesian War most Greeks began to lose their sense of
community. The war had lasted a long time and had cost a great deal of money. People were
discouraged. They began to lose interest in what was good for their city states. After the war
Sparta ruled Greece. But Spartans were harsh rulers who angered other Greeks. The Greeks
were no longer strong or united enough to fight off an invader. In 338 BC Plilip ll of Macedonia
conquered Greece.

References

 http://www.ducksters.com/

 http://www.ancientgreece.com/

 www.wikipedia.org/

 http://www.timemaps.com/

 http://www.ushistory.org/

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