Ancient Greece for Kids
[2023-11-17 21:57:51]
Thousands of years ago, ancient Greece was a civilization that dominated the majority of the Mediterranean. In the heyday of Alexander the Great, ancient Greece dominated the majority of Europe and West Asia. Before the Greeks came to the Romans, the majority of Roman culture was influenced by the Greeks.
Ancient Greece is the foundation of today's Western culture. Government, philosophy, science, mathematics, art, literature and everything in sports are influenced by ancient Greece.
Ancient - This era began with the introduction of democracy from the Greek civilization from 800 BC to 508 BC. This period includes the beginning of the Olympic Games, Odyssey by Homer, and writing by Ileard.
Classical era - this is the idea that most of us think about ancient Greece. Athens was dominated by democracy, and such great philosophers as Socrates and Plato appeared. Also the war between Sparta and Athens was at this time. This period ended with the rise of Alexander the Great in 323 BC
Hellenistic era - Hellenistic era continued from the death of King Alexander until 146 BC until Rome conquered Greece. It is derived from Greek "hellens" called Greek word "hellens".
Athens and Sparta are the two major city states that dominate the majority of ancient Greece. They are often competitors, fighting each other in the Peloponnesos war. At other times, they united to protect Greek land from intruders. The culture of these two cities is very different. While Sparta focuses almost exclusively on warfare and its way of fighting, Athens focuses on art and learning.
The Romans copied many Greek cultures including their gods, architecture, languages and even the way they eat!
Pheidippides is a Greek hero who moved 150 miles from the marathon to Sparta to get help from the Persians. After the Greeks won the war, he ran 25 miles from the marathon to Athens to announce the victory. This is the place where the name of the marathon competition was attached.
When they did court trial in Athens, they used a large jury of 500 citizens. This is far beyond the 12 we are using today.
The famous department of Greece was divided into several periods. The first related period was Greek Mycenae, followed by the Dark Age, Classical Greece, Alexander Age, and finally Hellenistic era. (Some of them include classical Greek Alexandre, but for the purposes of this article it will be considered quite different.) Before the emergence of Alexander the Great, the classics Greek like it consisted of a small city state divided. This is in stark contrast to the eastern Persian empire, which has central governance. This is why I was very angry when my self-stated Persians were unable to conquer Greece in 490 BC, but we should not move forward.
First, since "ancient Greece" is not an entity but a geographical space, we can not compare "ancient Greece" and "ancient Rome". What I call "ancient Greece" is the land itself of Greek we know now, but that was a long time ago. This is because the Greek city states living in this land collapse and are constantly fighting each other. They have no unit at all! Occasionally, like the Delhi alliance and the Corinthian alliance, they build loosely integrated alliances, they follow the same interests and offer military and economic assistance to each other. In most cases, this alliance is guided by superpowers forcing other countries to participate in the destruction of threats. So it is not completely unified. For comparison, you need to show the state of the exact city. Because they are completely different from each other.
When asking where you came from ancient Greece, Greece was not a country of those days, so they will not say that they came from Greece. There is no Greece. However, Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara and other hundreds of Greek city states each have their own personality and ways. So they say they are from Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Argos. The Greeks are very proud of their city state.