Discover why
Athens was the preeminent city during the
Golden Age of
Greece on this look at of the cradle of
Western civilization.
Travel back to the time of
Pericles, the noble statesman who led the revolution that touched all fields of knowledge. We will visit the amphitheatres that were home to the famous tragedies of the day, tour the site of the premier
Olympic games, and see the ornate temples of the
Gods including a bird's eye view of the architectural masterpiece of its day -- the
Acropolis.
Ancient Greece was a
Greek civilization belonging to a period of
Greek history that lasted from the
Archaic period of the 8th to
6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600
AD). Immediately following this period was the beginning of the
Early Middle Ages and the
Byzantine era. Included in ancient Greece is the period of
Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greece began with the repelling of a
Persian invasion by Athenian leadership. Because of conquests by
Alexander the Great,
Hellenistic civilization flourished from
Central Asia to the western end of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on the
Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the
Mediterranean Basin and
Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern
Western culture.
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece (508--322 BC) was the major urban center of the notable polis (city-state) of the same name, located in
Attica, Greece, leading the
Delian League in the
Peloponnesian War against
Sparta and the
Peloponnesian League.
Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under
Cleisthenes following the tyranny of
Isagoras. This system remained remarkably stable, and with a few brief interruptions remained in place for
180 years, until 322 BC (aftermath of
Lamian War). The peak of Athenian hegemony was achieved in the 440s to 430s BC, known as the
Age of Pericles.
In the classical period, Athens was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of
Plato's
Akademia and
Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens was also the birthplace of
Socrates, Pericles,
Sophocles, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle
of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy,[4] largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known
European continent.
- published: 12 Jun 2014
- views: 21183