The Greek World was the portion of the world which was known to, and inhabited by, the ancient Greek civilizations from 750 BC (the start of Greek colonization) to 31 BC (the Battle of Actium and the rise of the Rome as the new center of Western civilization). Greek civilization began in around 3000 BC, and Greece was conquered by the Romans in 146 BC, while the Roman Empire was founded in 27 BC, making Rome more important politically and philosophically than Athens or Sparta. The Greek world was established by colonists who emigrated from the overpopulated Greek mainland to establish colonies across the Mediterranean and beyond (by 500 BC, there were 1,500 colonies), and, while the Greek colonies in the western Mediterranean would later become Romanized, Europe was divided between the "Latin West" and the "Greek East" for centuries to come.
History[]
Origins[]
The Greeks originated as the Cycladians (3000-1200 BC), Minoans (3000-1400 BC), and the Mycenaeans (1600-1100 BC). The Cycladians inhabited the Cyclades islands, but, as they had no written language, not much is known about them apart from their fertility statues and artwork. The Minoans, meanwhile, originated on Crete, where they founded the palace at Knossos. King Minos, their namesake, defeated King Aegeus of Athens and, burdened with having the Minotaur as his son, demanded a dozen Athenian men and women each as annual tribute, intending on feeding them to the Minotaur. Aegeus' son Theseus decided to join these sacrifices and slay the Minotaur, promising to raise a black sail on the return voyage to signify his survival. Theseus fell in love with Minos' daughter Ariadne, who gave him a ball of string with which he could navigate his way back out of the labyrinth maze in which the Minotaur was trapped. Theseus slew the Minotaur and left the island with Ariadne, but he abandoned her on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus would later marry her. When Theseus sailed home, he forgot to change his sails, and his father, believing that his son had died, threw himself into the sea, which was renamed to the Aegean Sea in his honor. The Minoans, the descendants of King Minos, would become known for their frescoes, which were created through painting on wet plaster, making permanent artwork. The Minoans were also influenced by Egyptian artwork, as they were a mercantile people who traded with the Egyptians to the south. In around 1500 BC, the Minoan civilization was wiped out by a massive volcanic eruption on the island of Thera, which caused a tsunami which almost completely destroyed the Minoans and their permissive, free-love civilization.
The Mycenaeans of mainland Greece, unlike the peaceful Minoans, were warlike, and they took part in the Trojan War in 1193 BC. The elderly king Menelaus of Sparta was enraged when his young and beautiful wife Helen ran off with the Trojan prince Paris to Troy, and he secured the aid of the other Greek kings - who had previously promised to Zeus to do anything to protect Helen - in bringing her back. The Greeks besieged Troy for ten years in the "Trojan War", with the Greek gods being divided between the two sides. The brave Greek warrior Achilles killed the Trojan warrior Hector, Paris' brother (who had slain Achilles' lover Patroclus in battle), but Apollo directed Paris' arrow to Achilles' vulnerable heel, killing him. The Greek leader Odysseus came up with a ploy to turn the tide, having his men build a large wooden horse which could be wheeled into the city during a feast held in honor of Dionysus. Poseidon sent large snakes to kill Laocoon, the Trojan priest who saw through the plot, and the Greek warriors hid inside of the horse as the Trojans brought it into the city. The Greeks waited until the Trojan guards got drunk, and they proceeded to storm the palace and slaughter the men, enslave the women and children, and recapture Helen; Paris and the other Trojan nobles (with the exception of Aeneas, who fled to Italy) were among the slain. Menelaus brought Helen back with him, and she lived with him as a faithful wife until her death at an old age. The Mycenaeans, the legendary warriors, were ultimately destroyed during the invasion of the Dorians in 1100 BC.
Doric era[]
The destruction of the Mycenaeans led to the "Dark Ages" from 1100 to 750 BC, during which not much of Greek history was recorded, and when warfare between the cities was incessant. However, the blind poet Homer created the historical poems Iliad (the Trojan War) and the Odyssey (Odysseus' joruney home from Troy) to retell Greek history, bringing about a renaissance of Greek culture. During the 8th century BC, the Dorians founded the city-state of Sparta and pursued the remaining Greeks out of Greece, with the Greeks fleeing to Anatolia and the Ionian Sea, where they created the Ionian League. There, Greek science and Pre-Socratic philosophy was born, and the Ionian Greeks would return to Greece to found the city of Athens, which rivalled Sparta.
The Greeks never united into one country, however, and they remained divided into city-states. When the city-states became too large, they sent out colonists to the Black Sea, the Levant, the Nile, southern Italy (which became known as Magna Graecia), Spain (where they founded Barcelona), France (where they founded Marsilia, now Marseille), and to North Africa (where they founded Cyrene and other colonies). This expanded the Greek world, and they notably spoke the same language, had the same polytheistic religion (which included anthropomorphic gods, the idea of inescapable fate, and man being "the measure of all things"), competed in the Olympics every four years, and made pilgrimages to Delphi to visit the Oracle at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The Olympics would continue until around 500 AD, when the Roman Christians ended the Olympics due to their pagan origins and the necessity of male nudity.
Rise and fall of Hellenism[]
Greek culture existed in several stages: the Geometric style of 1000-700 BC, the Orientalizing style of 700-600 BC, the Archaic style of 600-480 BC, and the Classic style of 480-350 BC. Most Greek pottery was destroyed, but some was preseved over the centuries. The Greek world was torn apart during the Peloponnesian War of the mid-5th century BC, and Philip II of Macedon conquered Greece after the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Alexander the Great, the King of Macedon after Philip's assassination, adopted Greek culture and spread it across the world during his conquests from 335 BC to 323 BC, with Hellenic culture travelling to Egypt, across the conquered Persian Empire and into the Middle East and Central Asia, and even to India. After his death, his massive empire was again divided during the Wars of the Diadochi, his former generals and his successors, and the Greek world once again fragmented. At the same time, the Roman Republic was growing in power in central Italy, and the Romans - who claimed descent from the Trojan prince Aeneas - proceeded to conquer much of the Mediterranean through wars with Carthage, the Gauls, the Greek states, and other enemies. Under Julius Caesar, Rome stretched from France, Spain, and Morocco in the west to Asia Minor and Palestine in the east, and, following Caesar's death, his adopted son Octavian succeeded in uniting the empire under his rule, in addition to conquering the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt. Following Octavian's final victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the rise of the Roman Empire, Rome became the new center of Western civilization, ending the Hellenistic period and the Greek world, and ushering in the Roman world.
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