THEGreek Civilizationit was one of the greatest and most important civilizations in the Ancient world. This importance is due to the fact that this people has influenced a number of other peoples with their cultural traits, both in antiquity and in the contemporary era. Have you ever heard of democracy as a form of political organization? It was in ancient Greece that she was created. Mathematical notions such as Thales' theorem or Euclid's geometry were also developed in this civilization..
The history of this civilization during Antiquity spanned over 2,000 years, which is why historians divide it into five periods:
Pre-Homeric– from century XX to century XII a. Ç.
Homeric – from the 12th to the 8th century a. Ç.
Archaic – from the 8th to the 6th century a. Ç.
Classic – from century V to century IV a. Ç.
Hellenistic – from century IV to century I a. Ç.
Pre-Homeric Period
It was during this period that the first peoples arrived in the Peloponnese Peninsula region, a region of the Aegean Sea with a jagged coastline, very mountainous and with little fertile land. The first to arrive were the Achaeans, followed by the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians. They were Indo-European peoples who came from the north of the peninsula. As the Achaeans had been in the place longer, they created cities, mainly between 1400 and 1100 BC. C., of which the most important was Mycenae, from where the name of Mycenaean civilization originated, which indicates the civilizing process of the period.
However, the main influence of this period was due to Cretan civilization. The Cretans or Minoans (named after one of their kings) inhabited the island of Crete, very close to the Peloponnese Peninsula. Culturally and economically marked the period. However, civilization abruptly disappeared around 1750 BC. C., due, probably, to an earthquake or to the invasion of the Greek peoples, initially the Achaeans and then the Dorians.
Homeric Period
The Homeric period began with the invasion of the Dorians to the region, conquering it mainly because they used iron weapons, more resistant than those developed in the Mycenaean civilization. The name Homeric is linked to the fact that two poems were used to study the events that took place after the Doric invasion. Supposedly there was a poet named homer, who would have written to Iliad and the Odyssey, from oral accounts of the history of the centuries before him. These poems are important in the study of Greek civilization as they were the cultural expression of the people at the time, especially the way they understood the relationship between men and gods, based on feelings such as love, anger, envy and revenge, which led the gods to interfere in the lives of humans. They also express places that formed the ancient Greek world, as well as the exhibition of the mythological elements of this people.
During this period, the Greeks organized themselves into small communities called genos, giving a patriarchal character to the social organization of the period, which also represented a return to the rural world.
Archaic Period
During this period, the rise of the Greek civilization in its domain in part of the Mediterranean region began. It was in it that the polis was formed, the Greek city-state, with its political institutions, first the monarchy and then the oligarchy, especially the cities of Athens and Sparta. They started to develop maritime commerce and there was the expansion of civilization, either to the interior of the peninsula or for the constitution of colonies in Asia Minor, the Black Sea or even the Peninsula Italic.
Classic Period
In the Classical period, the Greek civilization reached its heyday, mainly in Athens, with an important cultural development: in architecture, the Parthenon and the arena theaters can be highlighted; in the arts, sculptures, ceramic paintings and theatrical production; in philosophy, there is the emphasis on Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In the political aspect, the constitution of the democratic regime in Athens.
In their relationship with other peoples, the Greeks established several wars, mainly with the Persians, originating the Medical Wars. The first was against the troops of the Persian king Darius I. The second against the troops of his son Xerxes. However, the divergent interests among the Greeks led them to fight among themselves. The Peloponnesian War stands out, which mainly opposed the cities of Athens and Sparta.
These internal wars led to the division of the Greek world and, later, to its weakening.
Hellenistic Period
With the weakening of the Greek world, the king of Macedonia, Philip II, was able to conquer Greece and unify it again. But it was with Alexander, son of Felipe II, that the Greek influence expanded to almost the entire ancient world, mainly after the defeat inflicted on the Persian Empire, in 330 BC. a., commanded at the time by Darius III. The expansion of the Macedonian Empire took Greek culture to the East, where there was a cultural fusion, uniting elements of Greek and Oriental cultures.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
