Chapter 4. Classical Greece and Rome

Ancient Greece. Greece was divided into independent city-states (poleis), among them Athens and Sparta. Athens developed an early form of direct democracy for male citizens; the reforms of Cleisthenes (about 508 BCE) are often cited as its start. Women, enslaved people and foreigners were excluded from citizenship [10].

Greeks defeated the Persian invasions (490–479 BCE).

Athens and Sparta fought the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE).

Greek thinkers, including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, shaped philosophy and science. Herodotus and Thucydides wrote early histories.

Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, conquered the Persian Empire and reached the Indus region; he died in 323 BCE. The following Hellenistic era spread Greek culture across the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia.

Rome. According to tradition, the Roman Republic began in 509 BCE. Rome grew from a city into the ruler of the Mediterranean, defeating Carthage in the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE). The Republic was strained by civil wars; Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, and his heir Octavian became Augustus, the first emperor, in 27 BCE [11].

Roman achievements. Roman law, roads, aqueducts, concrete architecture, Latin language and the spread of Christianity within the empire had lasting effects.

Decline. Economic strain, political instability, military pressure and migration contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire continued until the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 [11].

Review: Who was eligible to be a citizen with political rights in classical Athens? (Answer: free adult men of Athenian descent.)