Ancient Greece History 8th century BC-600AD
Authentic Ancient Greek Coins for Collecting or Investment
Buy
Ancient Greece History Coins
Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of
Greek history lasting from the
Archaic period of the 8th to 6th
centuries BC to 146 BC and the
Roman conquest of
Greece after the
Battle of Corinth.
Watch the video below for more info
 
Example of Authentic Ancient
Coin of:
Greek: Philip II - King of Macedon: 359-336 B.C.
Silver Tetradrachm
Struck under Cassander at Amphipolis, circa 315-295 B.C.
Commemorating his Olympic Games Victory
Pedigree: Ex-Gemini Auction VII, Lot 256; Ex Gemini The Rockefeller
University/Dr. Alfred E. Mirsky
Laureate head of Zeus right.
Naked youth on horse pacing right, holding long palm-branch; ΦIΛIΠ ΠΟΥ
behind and before
* Numismatic Note: Authentic ancient Greek coin of King Philip II of
Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great. Intriguing coin referring to
his Olympic victory.
Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of
Greek history lasting from the
Archaic period of the 8th to 6th
centuries BC to 146 BC and the
Roman conquest of
Greece after the
Battle of Corinth. At the center of
this time period is
Classical Greece, which flourished
during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under
Athenian leadership successfully
repelling the military threat of
Persian invasion. The
Athenian Golden Age ends with the
defeat of Athens at the hands of
Sparta in the
Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Following
the conquests of
Alexander the Great,
Hellenistic civilization flourished
from
Central Asia to the western end of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Classical
Greek culture had a powerful influence
on the
Roman Empire, which carried a version
of it to many parts of the
Mediterranean region and
Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally
considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of
Western civilization.
Chronology
There are no fixed or universally agreed upon dates for the beginning
or the end of
Classical Antiquity. It is typically
taken to last from the 8th century BC until the 6th century AD, or for
about 1,300 years.
Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the
Greek Dark Ages (c.1100-c.750 BC),
archaeologically characterised by the
protogeometric and
geometric style of designs on pottery,
succeeded by the
Orientalizing Period, a strong
influence of
Syro-Hittite,
Assyrian,
Phoenician and
Egyptian cultures.
Traditionally, the
Archaic period of ancient Greece is
taken in the wake of this strong Orientalizing influence during the 8th
century BC, which among other things brought the
alphabetic script to Greece, marking
the beginning of Greek literature (Homer,
Hesiod). The Archaic period gives way to the
Classical period around 500 BC, in turn
succeeded by the
Hellenistic period at the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC.
The
history of Greece during Classical
Antiquity may thus be subdivided into the following periods
Historiography
The historical period of ancient Greece is unique in world history as
the first period attested directly in proper
historiography, while earlier ancient
history or
proto-history is known by much more
circumstantial evidence, such as annals or king lists, and pragmatic
epigraphy.
Herodotus is widely known as the
"father of history", his
Histories being eponymous of the
entire
field. Written between the 450s and
420s BC, the scope of Herodotus' work reaches about a century into the
past, discussing 6th-century historical figures such as
Darius I of Persia,
Cambyses II and
Psamtik III, and alludes to some
8th-century ones such as
Candaules.
Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as
Thucydides,
Xenophon,
Demosthenes,
Plato
and
Aristotle. Most of these authors were
either
Athenians or pro-Athenians, which is
why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than of
many other cities. Their scope is further limited by a focus on
political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic and social
history.
History
Archaic period
In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages
which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been
lost and
Mycenaean script forgotten, but the
Greeks adopted the
Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to
create the
Greek alphabet. From about the 9th
century BC written records begin to appear.[6]
Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern
largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and
plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges.[7]
The
Lelantine War (c.710-c.650 BC) was an
ongoing conflict with the distinction of being the earliest documented
war of the ancient Greek period. It was fought between the important
poleis (city-states)
of
Chalcis and
Eretria over the fertile Lelantine
plain of
Euboea. Both cities seem to have
suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the
nominal victor.
A
mercantile class rose in the first half
of the 7th century, shown by the introduction of
coinage in about 680 BC.[citation
needed] This seems to have introduced tension to
many city-states. The
aristocratic regimes which generally
governed the poleis were threatened by the new-found wealth of
merchants, who in turn desired political power. From 650 BC onwards, the
aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by
populist
tyrants. The word derives from the
non-pejorative Greek τύραννος
tyrannos, meaning 'illegitimate ruler', although this was applicable
to both good and bad leaders alike.
A growing population and shortage of land also seems to have created
internal strife between the poor and the rich in many city-states. In
Sparta, the
Messenian Wars resulted in the conquest
of
Messenia and enserfment of the
Messenians, beginning in the latter half of the 8th century BC, an act
without precedent or antecedent in ancient Greece. This practice allowed
a social revolution to occur. The subjugated population, thenceforth
known as
helots, farmed and laboured for Sparta,
whilst every Spartan male citizen became a soldier of the
Spartan Army in a permanently
militarized state. Even the elite were obliged to live and train as
soldiers; this equality between rich and poor served to defuse the
social conflict. These reforms, attributed to the shadowy
Lycurgus of Sparta, were probably
complete by 650 BC.
Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century,
again resulting in civil strife. The
Archon (chief magistrate)
Draco made severe reforms to the law
code in 621 BC (hence "draconian"),
but these failed to quell the conflict. Eventually the moderate reforms
of
Solon (594 BC), improving the lot of the poor but firmly
entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability.
The Greek world in the mid 6th century BC.
By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek
affairs: Athens, Sparta,
Corinth, and
Thebes. Each of them had brought the
surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and
Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as
well.
Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had
resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form
colonies in
Magna Graecia (Southern
Italy and
Sicily),
Asia Minor and further afield. The
emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century by which time the Greek
world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the
area of present-day Greece. Greek colonies were not politically
controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained
religious and commercial links with them.
In this period, huge economic development occurred in Greece and also
her overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and
manufacturing. There was a large improvement in the living standards of
the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek
household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times,
which indicates a large increase in the average income of the
population.
In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny
of
Peisistratos and then his sons
Hippias and
Hipparchos. However, in 510 BC, at the
instigation of the Athenian aristocrat
Cleisthenes, the Spartan king
Cleomenes I helped the Athenians
overthrow the tyranny. Afterwards, Sparta and Athens promptly turned on
each other, at which point Cleomenes I installed
Isagoras as a pro-Spartan archon. Eager to prevent Athens
from becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes responded by proposing to
his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution: that all citizens
share in political power, regardless of status: that Athens become a "democracy".
So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea that, having
overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were
easily able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at
restoring Isagoras.The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of
Athens and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians.
Classical Greece
Early
Athenian coin, depicting
the head of
Athena on the obverse and
her owl on the reverse - 5th century BC
Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the
Peloponnesian War in 431
BC.
5th century
Athens and Sparta would soon have to become allies in the face of the
largest external threat ancient Greece would see until the Roman
conquest. After suppressing the
Ionian Revolt, a rebellion of the Greek
cities of
Ionia,
Darius I of Persia,
King of Kings of the
Achaemenid Empire, decided to subjugate
Greece. His invasion in 490 BC was ended by the Athenian victory at the
Battle of Marathon under
Miltiades the Younger.
Xerxes I of Persia, son and successor
of Darius I, attempted his own invasion 10 years later, but despite his
larger army he suffered heavy casualties after the famous rearguard
action at
Thermopylae and victories for the
allied Greeks at the Battles of
Salamis and
Plataea. The
Greco-Persian Wars continued until 449
BC, led by the Athenians and their
Delian League, during which time the
Macedon,
Thrace, the
Aegean Islands and Ionia were all
liberated from Persian influence.
The dominant position of the maritime Athenian 'Empire' threatened
Sparta and the
Peloponnesian League of mainland Greek
cities. Inevitably, this led to conflict, resulting in the
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Though
effectively a stalemate for much of the war, Athens suffered a number of
setbacks. The
Plague of Athens in 430 BC followed by
a disastrous military campaign known as the
Sicilian Expedition severely weakened
Athens. An estimated one-third of Athenians died, including
Pericles, their leader..
Sparta was able to foment rebellion amongst Athens's allies, further
reducing the Athenian ability to wage war. The decisive moment came in
405 BC when Sparta cut off the grain supply to Athens from the
Hellespont. Forced to attack, the
crippled Athenian fleet was decisively defeated by the Spartans under
the command of
Lysander at
Aegospotami. In 404 BC Athens sued for
peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost
her city walls (including the
Long Walls), her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions.
4th century
Greece thus entered the 4th century under a
Spartan hegemony, but it was clear from
the start that this was weak. A demographic crisis meant Sparta was
overstretched, and by 395 BC Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth felt
able to challenge Spartan dominance, resulting in the
Corinthian War (395-387 BC). Another
war of stalemates, it ended with the status quo restored, after the
threat of Persian intervention on behalf of the Spartans.
The Spartan hegemony lasted another 16 years, until, when attempting
to impose their will on the Thebans, the Spartans suffered a decisive
defeat at
Leuctra in 371 BC. The Theban general
Epaminondas then led Theban troops into
the Peloponnese, whereupon other city-states defected from the Spartan
cause. The Thebans were thus able to march into Messenia and free the
population.
Deprived of land and its serfs, Sparta declined to a second-rank
power. The
Theban hegemony thus established was
short-lived; at the
battle of Mantinea in 362 BC, Thebes
lost her key leader, Epaminondas, and much of her manpower, even though
they were victorious in battle. In fact such were the losses to all the
great city-states at Mantinea that none could establish dominance in the
aftermath.
The weakened state of the heartland of Greece coincided with the
Rise of Macedon, led by
Philip II. In twenty years, Philip had
unified his kingdom, expanded it north and west at the expense of
Illyrian tribes, and then conquered
Thessaly and
Thrace. His success stemmed from his
innovative reforms to the
Macedon army. Phillip intervened
repeatedly in the affairs of the southern city-states, culminating in
his invasion of 338 BC.
Decisively defeating an allied army of Thebes and Athens at the
, he became
de facto hegemon of all of Greece, except Sparta. He compelled
the majority of the city-states to join the
League of Corinth, allying them to him,
and preventing them from warring with each other. Philip then entered
into war against the Achemaenid Empire but was assassinated by
Pausanias of Orestis early on in the
conflict..
Alexander, son and successor of Philip,
continued the war. Alexander defeated
Darius III of Persia and completely
destroyed the Achaemenid Empire, annexing it to Macedon and earning
himself the epithet 'the Great'. When Alexander died in 323 BC, Greek
power and influence was at its zenith. However, there had been a
fundamental shift away from the fierce independence and classical
culture of the poleis—and instead towards the developing
Hellenistic culture.
Hellenistic Greece
The
Hellenistic period lasted from 323 BC,
which marked the end of the
Wars of Alexander the Great, to the
annexation of Greece by the
Roman Republic in 146 BC. Although the
establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic
society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the
advent of
Christianity
During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper"
(that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking
world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were
Alexandria and
Antioch, capitals of
Ptolemaic Egypt and
Seleucid Syria respectively.
The conquests of Alexander had numerous consequences for the Greek
city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks and led to a
steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new
Greek empires in the east.[13]
Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new
Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as what are
now
Afghanistan and
Pakistan, where the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the
Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the
end of the 1st century BC.
After the death of Alexander his empire was, after quite some
conflict, divided amongst his generals, resulting in the
Ptolemaic Kingdom (based upon
Egypt),
the
Seleucid Empire (based on the
Levant,
Mesopotamia and
Persia) and the
Antigonid dynasty based in Macedon. In
the intervening period, the poleis of Greece were able to wrest back
some of their freedom, although still nominally subject to the
Macedonian Kingdom.
The city-states formed themselves into two leagues; the
Achaean League (including Thebes,
Corinth and Argos) and the
Aetolian League (including Sparta and
Athens). For much of the period until the Roman conquest, these leagues
were usually at war with each other, and/or allied to different sides in
the conflicts between the Diadochi (the successor states to Alexander's
empire).
Territories and expansion of the Indo-Greeks..
First Macedonian War was inconclusive,
the Romans, in typical fashion, continued to make war on Macedon until
it was completely absorbed into the Roman Republic (by 149 BC). In the
east the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a
rump survived until 64 BC, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in
Egypt until 30 BC, when it too was conquered by the Romans. The Aetolian
league grew wary of Roman involvement in Greece, and sided with the
Seleucids in the
Roman-Syrian War; when the Romans were
victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic.
Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and
Macedon, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romans in 146 BC,
bringing an end to the independence of all of Greece.
Roman Greece
The Greek peninsula came under
Roman rule in 146 BC,
Macedonia becoming a
Roman province, while southern Greece
came under the surveillance of Macedonia's praefect. However, some Greek
poleis managed to maintain a partial
independence and avoid taxation. The
Aegean islands were added to this
territory in 133 BC.
Athens and other Greek cities revolted
in 88 BC, and the peninsula was crushed by the Roman general
Sulla. The Roman civil wars devastated
the land even further, until
Augustus organized the peninsula as the
province of
Achaea in 27 BC..
Greece was a key eastern province of the
Roman Empire, as the
Roman
culture had long been in fact
Greco-Roman. The
Greek language served as a
lingua franca in the
East
and in
Italy, and many Greek intellectuals
such as
Galen would perform most of their work
in
Rome. | 
