By about 600 B. C.E. Sparta and Athens had emerged as the dominant Greek city-states-Sparta on the Peloponnese Peninsula, Athens in the region northeast of Sparta known as Attica. Corinth and Thebes also were significant powers. The eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B. C.E. are an era classified by historians as Archaic Greece. This is when Homer’s epic stories about the Trojan War and its aftermath, The Iliad and The Odyssey, considered by the Greeks to be their own ancient Mycenaean history, were written down. Another writer, Hesiod, wrote down the oral legends about Greek gods. (The exact birth and death dates of Homer and Hesiod are not known-in fact, Homer’s actual existence is not even certain-but Hesiod was active in the eighth century B. C.E. and the origins of works attributed to Homer have also been traced to that period). Sixth century B. C.E. philosopher-scientists asked questions about the universe, no longer satisfied with the explanation that the gods had arranged everything. Governments ruled by oligarchies, or aristocratic councils, were being developed among city-states. By the end of the sixth century B. C.E. there were no kings or emperors in ancient Greece, except in Sparta, and its dual kingship, a vestige of its past, had limited power.
What we call today the Classical Greek era emerged in the fifth century B. C.E. and lasted through most of the fourth century B. C.E. In the 400s B. C.E. Athens truly became the heart of Classical Greece. It was a military and cultural leader among city-states, and it also put into practice democracy, which is government by the demos, the Greek word for “people.” Athens used its mighty navy to establish a maritime empire, taking control of many other city-states. Through increased contact, some Athenian notions of democracy spread around the region.
Beginning with Athenian leader Pericles (c. 495-429 B. C.E.), democracy took on its fullest form from 450 to 350 B. C.E., when Athens’s male citizens enjoyed broad government participation. Women and non-citizens (which included all foreigners and slaves), however, could not participate-a situation similar to the United States until the 20th century. Greek democracy lasted in stronger or weaker forms until the Roman Republic completed its takeover of the Greek world in 146 b. c.e. It would be many more centuries before democracy appeared again in the Western world.
Although they continually warred among themselves, the Greek city-states came together to fight a powerful invader, the Persian Empire, first in 490 B. C.E. When the Persians returned 10 years later and again were beaten by the Greeks, the Athenians, who had taken the lead in the
Coalition that fought the Persians, felt the gods had shown them great favor by granting them victory. The resulting pride and confidence inspired them to embark on an ambitious plan to embellish their city and extend their influence.
Although they ruled different areas of the mainland, the rivalry between Sparta and Athens deepened as Athens’s power and stature increased. Sparta, unique among the Greek city-states, had a social structure based on a purely military model. The two city-states shared little common ground philosophically and politically, and finally went to war with one another in 431 B. C.E. in a conflict now known as the Peloponnesian War.
World History
