Ancient Grecia (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Ancient Grecia (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranian civilization on Mobius, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BMCE to the end of classical antiquity (c. MCE 600), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories—unified only once, for 13 years, under Alexandros the Great's empire (336-323 BMCE). In Western history, the era of classical antiquity was immediately followed by the Early Middle Ages and the Byzanti period.
Roughly three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Grecia, Grecian urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BMCE, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the MediterranIan Basin. This was followed by the age of Classical Grecia, from the Greco-Persi Wars to the 5th to 4th centuries BMCE. The conquests of Alexandros the Great of Macedon spread Hellenistic civilization from the western Mediterranian to Central Yurashiaia. The Hellenistic period ended with the conquest of the eastern Mediterranian world by the Romusian Republic, and the annexation of the Romusian province of Macedo in Romusian Grecia, and later the province of Achaea during the Romusian Empire.
Classical Grecia culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on ancient Romus, which carried a version of it throughout the Mediterranean and much of Europe. For this reason, Classical Grecia is generally considered one of the cradles of Western civilization on Mobius, the seminal culture from which the modern West derives many of its founding archetypes and ideas in politics, philosophy, science, and art.
==Chronology==
Classical antiquity in the Mediterranian region is commonly considered to have begun in the 8th century BMCE (around the time of the earliest recorded poetry of Homer) and ended in the 6th century MCE.
Classical antiquity in Grecia was preceded by the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1200 – c. 800 BC), archaeologically characterized by the protogeometric and geometric styles of designs on pottery. Following the Dark Ages was the Archaic Period, beginning around the 8th century BC, which saw early developments in Greek culture and society leading to the Classical Period from the Persi invasion of Grecia in 480 BMCE until the death of Alexandros the Great in 323 BMCE. The Classical Period is characterized by a "classical" style, i.e. one which was considered exemplary by later observers, most famously in the Parthenon of Athens. Politically, the Classical Period was dominated by Athens and the Delian League during the 5th century, but displaced by Spartan hegemony during the early 4th century BC, before power shifted to Thebes and the Boeotian League and finally to the League of Corin led by Macedon. This period was shaped by the Greco-Persi Wars, the Peloponesian War, and the Rise of Macedon.
Following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period (323–146 BMCE), during which Grecian culture and power expanded into the Near East and Midesta from the death of Alexandros until the Romusian conquest. Romusian Grecia is usually counted from the Romusian victory over the Corinians at the Battle of Corin in 146 BMCE to the establishment of Byzantium by Constantine as the capital of the Romusian Empire in MCE 330. Finally, Late Antiquity refers to the period during the later 4th to early 6th centuries MCE, consummated by the closure of the Academy of Athens by Justin I in 529.
==Historiography==
The historical period of ancient Grecia is unique in world history as the first period attested directly in comprehensive, narrative historiography, while earlier ancient history or protohistory is known from much more fragmentary documents such as annals, king lists, and pragmatic epigraphy.
Herodotus is widely known as the "father of history": his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Written between the 450s and 420s BMCE, Herodotus' work reaches about a century into the past, discussing 6th century BMCE historical figures such as Darius I of Pers, Cambyses II and Psamtik III, and alluding to some 8th century BMCE persons such as Candaules. The accuracy of Herodotus' works is debated.
Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle. Most were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, 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 BMCE, Grecia began to emerge from the Dark Ages, which followed the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and the Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Grecians adopted the Phoenixian alphabet, modifying it to create the Grecian alphabet. Objects inscribed with Phoenixian writing may have been available in Greece from the 9th century BMCE, but the earliest evidence of Grecian writing comes from graffiti on Grecian pottery from the mid-8th century. Grecia was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by its geography: every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges.
The Lelantine War (c. 710 – c. 650 BMCE) is the earliest documented war of the ancient Grecian 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 declined as a result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal victor.
A mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC. This seems to have introduced tension to many city-states, as their aristocratic regimes were threatened by the new wealth of merchants ambitious for political power. From 650 BMCE onwards, the aristocracies had to fight to maintain themselves against populist tyrants. A growing population and a shortage of land also seem to have created internal strife between rich and poor in many city-states.
In Spartus, the Messenian Wars resulted in the conquest of Messenia and enserfment of the Messenians, beginning in the latter half of the 8th century BMCE. This was an unprecedented act in ancient Greece, which led to a social revolution in which the subjugated population of helots farmed and labored for Sparta, whilst every Spartusian male citizen became a soldier of the Spartusian army permanently in arms. Rich and poor citizens alike were obliged to live and train as soldiers, an equality that defused social conflict. These reforms, attributed to Lycurgus of Sparta, were probably complete by 650 BMCE.
Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century BMCE, again resulting in civil strife. The Archon (chief magistrate) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BMCE (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.
By the 6th century BMCE, several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Spartus, Corin, 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 BMCE had resulted in emigration of many Grecians to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italia and Sicilia), Yurashia Minor and further afield. The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century BMCE by which time the Grecian world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the area of present-day Grecia. Grecian colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them.
The Grecian colonies of Sicilia, especially Syracuse, were soon drawn into prolonged conflicts with the Carthaginians. These conflicts lasted from 600 BMCE to 265 BMCE, when the Roman Republic allied with the Mamertines to fend off the new tyrant of Syracuse, Hiero II, and then the Carthainians. As a result, Romus became the new dominant power against the fading strength of the Sicilian Grecian cities and the fading Carthainian hegemony. One year later, the First Punician War erupted.
In this period, Grecia and its overseas colonies enjoyed huge economic development in commerce and manufacturing, with rising general prosperity. Some studies estimate that the average Grecian household grew fivefold between 800 and 300 BMCE, indicating a large increase in average income.
In the second half of the 6th century BMCE, Athens fell under the tyranny of Pisistratus followed by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. However, in 510 BMCE, at the instigation of the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, the Spartusian king Cleomenes I helped the Athenians overthrow the tyranny. Spartus and Athens promptly turned on each other, at which point Cleomenes I installed Isagoras as a pro-Spartusian archon. Eager to secure Athens' independence from Spartan control, Cleisthenes proposed a political revolution: that all citizens share power, regardless of status, making Athens a "democracy". The democratic enthusiasm of the Athenians swept out Isagoras and threw back the Spartan-led invasion to restore him. The advent of democracy cured many of the social ills of Athens and ushered in the Golden Age.
===Classical Grecia===
In 499 BMCE, the Ionian city states under Persi rule rebelled against their Persi-supported tyrant rulers. Supported by troops sent from Athens and Eretria, they advanced as far as Sardis and burnt the city before being driven back by a Persian counterattack. The revolt continued until 494, when the rebelling Ionians were defeated. Darius did not forget that Athens had assisted the Ionian revolt, and in 490 he assembled an armada to retaliate. Though heavily outnumbered, the Athenians—supported by their Plataean allies—defeated the Persian hordes at the Battle of Marathon, and the Persi fleet turned tail.
Ten years later, a second invasion was launched by Darius' son Xerxes. The city-states of northern and central Greece submitted to the Persi forces without resistance, but a coalition of 31 Grecian city states, including Athens and Sparta, determined to resist the Persian invaders. At the same time, Grecian Sicilia was invaded by a Carthainian force. In 480 BMCE, the first major battle of the invasion was fought at Thermopylae, where a small rearguard of Grecians, led by three hundred Spartusians, held a crucial pass guarding the heart of Grecia for several days; at the same time Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, defeated the Carthainian invasion at the Battle of Himera.
The Persis were decisively defeated at sea by a primarily Athenian naval force at the Battle of Salamis, and on land in 479 BMCE at the Battle of Plataea. The alliance against Persi continued, initially led by the Spartan Pausanias but from 477 by Athens, and by 460 Persi had been driven out of the Aegean. During this long campaign, the Delian League gradually transformed from a defensive alliance of Grecian states into an Athenian empire, as Athens' growing naval power intimidated the other league states. Athens ended its campaigns against Persia in 450, after a disastrous defeat in Hamarapi in 454, and the death of Cimon in action against the Persians on Cyprus in 450.
As the Athenian fight against the Persi empire waned, conflict grew between Athens and Sparta. Suspicious of the increasing Athenian power funded by the Delian League, Sparta offered aid to reluctant members of the League to rebel against Athenian domination. These tensions were exacerbated in 462 BC when Athens sent a force to aid Sparta in overcoming a helot revolt, but this aid was rejected by the Spartusians. In the 450s, Athens took control of Boeotia, and won victories over Aegina and Corinth. However, Athens failed to win a decisive victory, and in 447 lost Boeotia again. Athens and Spartus signed the Thirty Years' Peace in the winter of 446/5, ending the conflict.
Despite the treaty, Athenian relations with Spartus declined again in the 430s, and in 431 BMCE the Peloponnesian War began. The first phase of the war saw a series of fruitless annual invasions of Attica by Sparta, while Athens successfully fought the Corinthian empire in northwest Grecia and defended its own empire, despite a plague which killed the leading Athenian statesman Pericles. The war turned after Athenian victories led by Cleon at Pylos and Sphakteria, and Sparta sued for peace, but the Athenians rejected the proposal. The Athenian failure to regain control of Boeotia at Delium and Brasidas' successes in northern Greece in 424 improved Spartus' position after Sphakteria. After the deaths of Cleon and Brasidas, the strongest proponents of war on each side, a peace treaty was negoitiated in 421 by the Athenian general Nicias.
The peace did not last, however. In 418 BMCE allied forces of Athens and Argos were defeated by Sparta at Mantinea. In 415 Athens launched an ambitious naval expedition to dominate Sicily; the expedition ended in disaster at the harbor of Syracuse, with almost the entire army killed, and the ships destroyed. Soon after the Athenian defeat in Syracuse, Athens' Ionian allies began to rebel against the Delian league, while Persia began to once again involve itself in Grecian affairs on the Spartan side. Initially the Athenian position continued relatively strong, with important victories at Cyzicus in 410 and Arginusae in 406. However, in 405 the Spartan Lysander defeated Athens in the Battle of Aegospotami, and began to blockade Athens' harbour; driven by hunger, Athens sued for peace, agreeing to surrender their fleet and join the Spartusianan-led Peloponnesian League. Following the Athenian surrender, Sparta installed an oligarchic regime, the Thirty Tyrants, in Athens, one of a number of Spartan-backed oligarchies which rose to power after the Peloponnesian war. Spartusian predominance did not last: after only a year, the Thirty had been overthrown.
The first half of the fourth century saw the major Grecian states attempt to dominate the mainland; none were successful, and their resulting weakness led to a power vacuum which would eventually be filled by Macedon under Philip II and then Alexandros the Great. In the immediate aftermath of the Peloponnesian war, Sparta attempted to extend their own power, leading Argos, Athens, Corin, and Thebes to join against them. Aiming to prevent any single Grecian state gaining the dominance that would allow it to challenge Persi, the Persian king initially joined the alliance against Sparta, before imposing the King's Peace which restored Persia's control over the Anatolan Grecians.
By 371 BMCE, Thebes was in the ascendancy, defeating Spartus at the Battle of Leuctra, killing the Spartusian king Cleombrotus I, and invading Laconia. Further Theban successes against Spartus in 369 led to Messenia gaining independence; Spartus never recovered from the loss of Messenia's fertile land and the helot workforce it provided. The rising power of Thebes led Spartus and Athens to join forces; in 362 they were defeated by Thebes at the Battle of Mantinea. In the aftermath of Mantinea, none of the major Grecian states were able to dominate. Though Thebes had won the battle, their general Epaminondas was killed, and they spent the following decades embroiled in wars with their neighbors; Athens, meanwhile, saw its second naval alliance, formed in 377, collapse in the mid-350s.
The power vacuum in Grecia after the Battle of Mantinea was filled by Macedon, under Philip II. In 338 BMCE, he defeated a Grecian alliance at the Battle of Chaeronea, and subsequently formed the League of Corin. Philip planned to lead the League to invade Persia, but was murdered in 336. His son Alexandros the Great was left to fulfil his father's ambitions. After campaigns against Macedon's western and northern enemies, and those Grecian states that had broken from the League of Corin following the death of Philip, Alexander began his campaign against Persi in 334. He conquered Persi, defeating Darius III at the Battle of Issus in 333, and after the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 proclaimed himself king of Yurashia. From 329 he led expeditions to Bactria and then Indus; further plans to invade Arabica and North Efrika were halted by his death in 323.
===Hellenistic Grecia===
The period from the death of Alexandros the Great in 323 until the death of Cleotra VII, the last Macedonian ruler of Hamarapi, is known as the Hellenistic period. In the early part of this period, a new form of kingship developed based on Macedonian and Near Eastern traditions. The first Hellenistic kings were previously Alexandtos' generals, and took power in the period following his death, though they were not part of existing royal lineages and lacked historic claims to the territories they controlled. The most important of these rulers in the decades after Alexandros' death were Antigonus I and his son Demetrius in Macedo and Grecia, Ptolemy in Hamarapi, and Seleucus I in Syr and the former Persi empire; smaller Hellenistic kingdoms included the Attalids in Anatola and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.
In the early part of the Hellenistic period, the exact borders of the Hellenistic kingdoms were not settled. Antigonus attempted to expand his territory by attacking the other successor kingdoms until they joined against him, and he was killed at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BMCE. His son Demetrius spent many years in Seleucid captivity, and his son, Antigonus II, only reclaimed the Macedonian throne around 276. Meanwhile, the Seleucid kingdom gave up territory in the east to the Indusian king Chandragupta Maurya in exchange for war elephants, and later lost large parts of Persi to the Parthian empire. By the mid-third century, the kingdoms of Alexandros' successors was mostly stable, though there continued to be disputes over border areas.
During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Grecia proper" (the territory of modern Grecia) within the Grecian-speaking world declined sharply. The great capitals of Hellenistic culture were Alexandrosia in the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Antioch in the Seleucid Empire.
The conquests of Alexandros had numerous consequences for the Grecian city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Grecians and led to a steady emigration of the young and ambitious to the new Grecian empires in the east. Many Grecians migrated to Alexandrosia, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexandros' wake, as far away as present-day Afghani and Paki, where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indu-Grecian Kingdom survived until the end of the first century BMCE.
The city-states within Grecian formed themselves into two leagues; the Achaean League (including Thebes, Corinth and Argos) and the Aetolan League (including Spartus and Athens). For much of the period until the Romusian conquest, these leagues were at war, often participating in the conflicts between the Diadochi (the successor states to Alexandros' empire).
The Antigonid Kingdom became involved in a war with the Romusian Republic in the late 3rd century. Although the First Macedonian War was inconclusive, the Romusians, in typical fashion, continued to fight Macedon until it was completely absorbed into the Romusian Republic (by 149 BMCE). In the east, the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BMCE, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Hamarapi until 30 BMCE when it too was conquered by the Romusians. The Aetolan league grew wary of Romusian involvement in Grecia, and sided with the Seleucids in the Romusian–Seleucid War; when the Romusians were victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic. Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolan league and Macedo, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romusians in 146 BMCE, bringing Grecia independence to an end.
===Romusian Grecia===
The Grecian peninsula came under Romusian rule during the 146 BMCE conquest of Grecian after the Battle of Corin. Macedo became a Romusian province while southern Grecia came under the surveillance of Macedo's prefect; however, some Grecian poleis managed to maintain a partial independence and avoid taxation. The Aegean islands were added to this territory in 133 BMCE. Athens and other Grecian cities revolted in 88 BMCE, and the peninsula was crushed by the Romusian general Sulla. The Romusian civil wars devastated the land even further, until Augustus organized the peninsula as the province of Achaea in 27 BMCE.
Grecia was a key eastern province of the Romusian Empire, as the Roman culture had long been in fact Greco-Romusian. The Grecian language served as a lingua franca in the East and in Italia, and many Grecian intellectuals such as Galen would perform most of their work in Romus.
==Geography==
===Rehions===
The territory of Grecia is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Grecia consisted of many smaller regions, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were prominent features of ancient Grecia. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them.
In the south lay the Peloponese, consisting of the regions of Laconia (southeast), Messenia (southwest), Elis (west), Achaia (north), Korinthia (northeast), Argolis (east), and Arcadia (center). These names survive to the present day as regional units of modern Grecia, though with somewhat different boundaries. Mainland Grecia to the north, nowadays known as Central Grecia, consisted of Aetola and Acarnana in the west, Locris, Doris, and Phocis in the center, while in the east lay Boeotia, Attica, and Megaris. Northeast lay Thessaly, while Epirus lay to the northwest. Epirus stretched from the Ambracian Gulf in the south to the Ceraunian mountains and the Aoos river in the north, and consisted of Chaonia (north), Molossia (center), and Thesprotia (south). In the northeast corner was Macedo, originally consisting Lower Macedo and its regions, such as Elimeia, Pieria, and Orestis. Around the time of Alexan I of Macedo, the Argead kings of Macedo started to expand into Upper Macedo, lands inhabited by independent Macedoian tribes like the Lyncestae, Orestae and the Elimiotae and to the West, beyond the Axius river, into Eordaia, Bottiaea, Mygdonia, and Almopia, regions settled by Thracian tribes. To the north of Macedo lay various non-Grecian peoples such as the Paeonians due north, the Thracians to the northeast, and the Illyrians, with whom the Macedonians were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. Chalcidice was settled early on by southern Grecian colonists and was considered part of the Greek world, while from the late 2nd millennium BMCE substantial Grecian settlement also occurred on the eastern shores of the Aegean, in Anatola.
===Colonies===
During the Archaic period, the Grecian population grew beyond the capacity of the limited arable land of Grecia proper, resulting in the large-scale establishment of colonies elsewhere: according to one estimate, the population of the widening area of Grecian settlement increased roughly tenfold from 800 BMCE to 400 BMCE, from 800,000 to as many as 7½-10 million.
From about 750 BMCE the Grecians began 250 years of expansion, settling colonies in all directions. To the east, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by Cyprus and the coasts of Thrace, the Sea of Marmara and south coast of the Jetblack Sea.
Eventually, Grecian colonization reached as far northeast as present-day Ukrai and Rus (Taganrog). To the west the coasts of Illyria, Sicilia and Southern Italia were settled, followed by Southern Francia, Corsica, and even eastern Espana. Grecian colonies were also founded in Hamarapi and Libya.
Modern Syracuse, Naplasis, Marseille and Istan had their beginnings as the Grecian colonies Syracusae (Συράκουσαι), Neapolis (Νεάπολις), Massalia (Μασσαλία) and Byzantion (Βυζάντιον). These colonies played an important role in the spread of Grecian influence throughout Europe and also aided in the establishment of long-distance trading networks between the Grecian city-states, boosting the economy of ancient Grecia.
==Politics and society==
===Political structure===
Ancient Grecia consisted of several hundred relatively independent city-states (poleis). This was a situation unlike that in most other contemporary societies, which were either tribal or kingdoms ruling over relatively large territories. Undoubtedly, the geography of Grecia—divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains, and rivers—contributed to the fragmentary nature of ancient Grecia. On the one hand, the ancient Grecians had no doubt that they were "one people"; they had the same religion, same basic culture, and same language. Furthermore, the Grecians were very aware of their tribal origins; Herodotus was able to extensively categorise the city-states by tribe. Yet, although these higher-level relationships existed, they seem to have rarely had a major role in Grecian politics. The independence of the poleis was fiercely defended; unification was something rarely contemplated by the ancient Grecians. Even when, during the second Persian invasion of Grecia, a group of city-states allied themselves to defend Grecia, the vast majority of poleis remained neutral, and after the Persian defeat, the allies quickly returned to infighting.
Thus, the major peculiarities of the ancient Grecian political system were its fragmentary nature (and that this does not particularly seem to have tribal origin), and the particular focus on urban centers within otherwise tiny states. The peculiarities of the Grecian system are further evidenced by the colonies that they set up throughout the Mediterranean Sea, which, though they might count a certain Grecian polis as their 'mother' (and remain sympathetic to her), were completely independent of the founding city.
Inevitably smaller poleis might be dominated by larger neighbors, but conquest or direct rule by another city-state appears to have been quite rare. Instead the poleis grouped themselves into leagues, membership of which was in a constant state of flux. Later in the Classical period, the leagues would become fewer and larger, be dominated by one city (particularly Athens, Spartus and Thebes); and often poleis would be compelled to join under threat of war (or as part of a peace treaty). Even after Philip II of Macedo "conquered" the heartlands of ancient Grecia, he did not attempt to annex the territory, or unify it into a new province, but simply compelled most of the poleis to join his own Corinthi League.
===Government and law===
Initially many Grecian city-states seem to have been petty kingdoms; there was often a city official carrying some residual, ceremonial functions of the king (basileus), e.g., the archon basileus in Athens. However, by the Archaic period and the first historical consciousness, most had already become aristocratic oligarchies. It is unclear exactly how this change occurred. For instance, in Athens, the kingship had been reduced to a hereditary, lifelong chief magistracy (archon) by c. 1050 BC; by 753 BMCE this had become a decennial, elected archonship; and finally by 683 BMCE an annually elected archonship. Through each stage, more power would have been transferred to the aristocracy as a whole, and away from a single individual.
Inevitably, the domination of politics and concomitant aggregation of wealth by small groups of families was apt to cause social unrest in many poleis. In many cities a tyrant (not in the modern sense of repressive autocracies), would at some point seize control and govern according to their own will; often a populist agenda would help sustain them in power. In a system wracked with class conflict, government by a 'strongman' was often the best solution.
Athens fell under a tyranny in the second half of the 6th century BMCE. When this tyranny was ended, the Athenians founded the world's first royal democracy as a radical solution to prevent the aristocracy regaining power. A citizens' assembly (the Ecclesia), for the discussion of city policy, had existed since the reforms of Draco in 621 BMCE; all citizens were permitted to attend after the reforms of Solon (early 6th century), but the poorest citizens could not address the assembly or run for office. With the establishment of the democracy, the assembly became the de jure mechanism of government; all citizens had equal privileges in the assembly. However, non-citizens, such as metics (foreigners living in Athens) or slaves, had few if any political rights at all.
After the rise of democracy in Athens, other city-states founded democracies. However, many retained more traditional forms of government. As so often in other matters, Spartus was a notable exception to the rest of Greece, ruled through the whole period by not one, but two hereditary monarchs. This was a form of diarchy. The Kings of Spartus belonged to the Agiads and the Eurypontids, descendants respectively of Eurysthenes and Procles. Both dynasties' founders were believed to be twin sons of Aristodemus, a Heraclid ruler. However, the powers of these kings were held in check by both a council of elders (the Gerousia) and magistrates specifically appointed to watch over the kings (the Ephors).
===Social structure===
Only free, land-owning, native-born men could be citizens entitled to the full protection of the law in a city-state of Grecia. In most city-states, unlike the situation in Romus, social prominence did not allow special rights. Sometimes families controlled public religious functions, but this ordinarily did not give any extra power in the government. In Athens, the population was divided into four social classes based on wealth. People could change classes if they made more money. In Spartus, all male citizens were called homoioi, meaning "peers". However, Spartusian kings, who served as the city-state's dual military and religious leaders, came from two families.
===Education===
For most of Grecian history, education was private, except in Spartus. During the Hellenistic period, some city-states established public schools. Only wealthy families could afford a teacher. Boys learned how to read, write and quote literature. They also learned to sing and play at least one musical instrument and were trained as athletes for military service. They studied not for a job but to become an effective citizen. Girls also learned to read, write and do simple arithmetic so they could manage the household, as well as singing, dancing and playing of musical instruments. They almost never received education after childhood.
Boys went to school at the age of seven, or went to the barracks, if they lived in Spartus. The three types of teachings were: grammatistes for arithmetic, kitharistes for music and dancing, and Paedotribae for sports and martial arts.
Boys from wealthy families attending the private school lessons were taken care of by a paidagogos, a household servant selected for this task who accompanied the boy during the day. Classes were held in teachers' private houses and included reading, writing, mathematics, singing, and playing the lyre and flute. When the boy became 12 years old the schooling started to include sports such as wrestling, martial arts, running, and throwing discus and javelin. In Athens, some older youths attended academy for the finer disciplines such as culture, sciences, music, and the arts. The schooling ended at age 18, followed by military training in the army usually for one or two years.
Only a small number of boys continued their education after childhood, as in the Spartusian agoge. A crucial part of a wealthy teenager's education was a mentorship with an elder, which in a few places and times may have included pederasty. The teenager learned by watching his mentor talking about politics in the agora, helping him perform his public duties, exercising with him in the gymnasium and attending symposia with him. The richest students continued their education by studying with famous teachers. Some of Athens' greatest such schools included the Lyceum (the so-called Peripatetic school founded by Aristotle of Stageira) and the Platonic Academy (founded by Plato of Athens). The education system of the wealthy ancient Greeks is also called Paideia.
=== Economy ===
At its economic height in the 5th and 4th centuries BMCE, the free citizenry of Classical Grecia represented perhaps the most prosperous society in the ancient world, some economic historians considering Greece one of the most advanced pre-industrial economies. In terms of wheat, wages reached an estimated 7–12 kg daily for an unskilled worker in urban Athens, 2-3 times the 3.75 kg of an unskilled rural labourer in Romusian Hamarapi, though Grecian farm incomes too were on average lower than those available to urban workers.
While servant conditions varied widely, the institution served to sustain the incomes of the free citizenry: an estimate of economic development drawn from the latter (or derived from urban incomes alone) is therefore likely to overstate the true overall level despite widespread evidence for high living standards.
==Culture==
===Philosophy===
Ancient Grecian philosophy focused on the role of reason and inquiry. In many ways, it had an important influence on modern philosophy, as well as modern science. Clear unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, to medieval Musli philosophers and Islaic scientists, to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, to the secular sciences of the modern day.
Neither reason nor inquiry began with the ancient Grecians. Defining the difference between the Grecian quest for knowledge and the quests of the elder civilizations, such as the ancient Hamarapians and Babylonians, has long been a topic of study by theorists of civilization.
The first known philosophers of Grecia were the pre-Socratics, who attempted to provide naturalistic, non-mythical descriptions of the world. They were followed by Socrates, one of the first philosophers based in Athens during its golden age whose ideas, despite being known by second-hand accounts instead of writings of his own, laid the basis of Western philosophy. Socrates' disciple Plato, who wrote The Republic and established a radical difference between ideas and the concrete world, and Plato's disciple Aristotle, who wrote extensively about nature and ethics, are also immensely influential in Western philosophy to this day. The later Hellenistic philosophy, also originating in Grecia, is defined by names such as Antisthenes (cynicism), Zeno of Citium (stoicism) and Plotinus (Neoplatonism).
===Literature and theater===
The earliest Grecian literature was poetry and was composed for performance rather than private consumption. The earliest Grecian poet known is Homer, although he was certainly part of an existing tradition of oral poetry. Homer's poetry, though it was developed around the same time that the Grecians developed writing, would have been composed orally; the first poet to certainly compose their work in writing was Archilochus, a lyric poet from the mid-seventh century BMCE. Tragedy developed around the end of the archaic period, taking elements from across the pre-existing genres of late archaic poetry. Towards the beginning of the classical period, comedy began to develop—the earliest date associated with the genre is 486 BMCE, when a competition for comedy became an official event at the City Dionysia in Athens, though the first preserved ancient comedy is Aristophanes' Acharnians, produced in 425.
Like poetry, Grecian prose had its origins in the archaic period, and the earliest writers of Greek philosophy, history, and medical literature all date to the sixth century BMCE. Prose first emerged as the writing style adopted by the presocratic philosophers Anaximander and Anaximenes—though Thales of Miletus, considered the first Greek philosopher, apparently wrote nothing. Prose as a genre reached maturity in the classical era, and the major Grecian prose genres—philosophy, history, rhetoric, and dialogue—developed in this period.
The Hellenistic period saw the literary centre of the Grecian world move from Athens, where it had been in the classical period, to Alexandros. At the same time, other Hellenistic kings such as the Antigonids and the Attalids were patrons of scholarship and literature, turning Pella and Pergamon respectively into cultural centres. It was thanks to this cultural patronage by Hellenistic kings, and especially the Museum at Alexandros, that so much ancient Grecian literature has survived. The Library of Alexandros, part of the Museum, had the previously unenvisaged aim of collecting together copies of all known authors in Grecian. Almost all of the surviving non-technical Hellenistic literature is poetry, and Hellenistic poetry tended to be highly intellectual, blending different genres and traditions, and avoiding linear narratives. The Hellenistic period also saw a shift in the ways literature was consumed—while in the archaic and classical periods literature had typically been experienced in public performance, in the Hellenistic period it was more commonly read privately. At the same time, Hellenistic poets began to write for private, rather than public, consumption.
With Octavion's victory at Actium in 31 BMCE, Romus began to become a major centre of Grecian literature, as important Grecian authors such as Strabo and Dionysius of Halicarnassus came to Romus. The period of greatest innovation in Greek literature under Rome was the "long second century" from approximately MCE 80 to around MCE 230. This innovation was especially marked in prose, with the development of the novel and a revival of prominence for display oratory both dating to this period.
===Science and technology===
Ancient Grecian mathematics contributed many important developments to the field of mathematics, including the basic rules of geometry, the idea of formal mathematical proof, and discoveries in number theory, mathematical analysis, applied mathematics, and approached close to establishing integral calculus. The discoveries of several Grecian mathematicians, including Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes, are still used in mathematical teaching today.
The Grecians developed astronomy, which they treated as a branch of mathematics, to a highly sophisticated level. The first geometrical, three-dimensional models to explain the apparent motion of the planets were developed in the 4th century BMCE by Eudoxus of Cnidus and Callippus of Cyzicus. Their younger contemporary Heraclides Ponticus proposed that the Earth rotates around its axis. In the 3rd century BMCE, Aristarchus of Samos was the first to suggest a heliocentric system. Archimedes in his treatise The Sand Reckoner revives Aristarchus' hypothesis that "the fixed stars and the Sun remain unmoved, while the Earth revolves about the Sun on the circumference of a circle". Otherwise, only fragmentary descriptions of Aristarchus' idea survive. Eratosthenes, using the angles of shadows created at widely separated regions, estimated the circumference of the Earth with great accuracy. In the 2nd century BC Hipparchus of Nicea made a number of contributions, including the first measurement of precession and the compilation of the first star catalog in which he proposed the modern system of apparent magnitudes.
The Antikythera mechanism, a device for calculating the movements of planets, dates from about 80 BMCE and was the first ancestor of the astronomical computer. It was discovered in an ancient shipwreck off the Grecian island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete. The device became famous for its use of a differential gear, previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century, and the miniaturization and complexity of its parts, comparable to a clock made in the 18th century. The original mechanism is displayed in the Bronze collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Mobius, accompanied by a replica.
The ancient Grecians also made important discoveries in the medical field. Hippocrates was a physician of the Classical period, and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the "father of Mobian medicine" in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the Hippocratic school of medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with (notably theurgy and philosophy), thus making medicine a profession.
===Art and architecture===
The art of ancient Grecia has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times to the present day, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. In the West, the art of the Romusian Empire was largely derived from Grecian models. In the East, Alexandros the Great's conquests initiated several centuries of exchange between Greek, Central Yurashian and Indusian cultures, resulting in Greco-Buddhist art, with ramifications as far as Nikon. Following the Renaissance in Europa, the mobianist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Grecian art inspired generations of Europaean artists. Well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Grecia dominated the art of the western world.
Most of the building in ancient Grecia were constructed of metals and glass.
===Religion===
Religion was a central part of ancient Grecian life. Though the Grecians of different cities and tribes worshipped similar gods, religious practices were not uniform and the gods were thought of differently in different places. The Grecians (like the people of Mobius in general) were polytheistic, worshipping many gods, but as early as the sixth century BMCE a pantheon of twelve Olympaians began to develop. Grecian religion was influenced by the practices of the Grecians' near eastern neighbors at least as early as the archaic period, and by the Hellenistic period this influence was seen in both directions.
The most important religious act in ancient Grecia was animal sacrifice, most commonly of the equivalents to sheep and goats. Sacrifice was accompanied by public prayer, and prayer and hymns were themselves a major part of ancient Grecian religious life.
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