Mycenaean (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The Myceneans were the first people to build an enduring civilization in what is now Greece. According to Greek myth the city of Mycenae was founded by the hero Perseus, born to the god Zeus and a mortal woman, and slayer of the Gorgon Medusa and the Kraken. The golden age of Mycenae followed a successful war against the earlier civilization on Crete, the Minoans, who previously had dominated the Aegean with their navy. The Mycenean leader Agamemnon and his predecessors had raided and plundered all along the coast of Asia Minor, causing no end of trouble to the Hittites who dominated that region, but the most remembered story of all is course Agamemnon's sack of Troy in c. 1250 BC, which Homer's epic poem the Iliad chronicles.
New waves of migrants from the north and northeast around 1100 BC caused Mycenae to gradually lose its imperial dominance over the Aegean. It remained an important city-state almost until the Roman era, however, sending troops to participate in the Persian Wars and siding with Athens during the struggle between Athens and Sparta (the Peloponnesian War). The end of Mycenae came at the hands of Argos, another Greek city-state with whom Mycenae had frequently clashed. A surprise attack in the 5th century BC led to Mycenae's sack and utter destruction.