Ancient Greece and Rome: History and Culture
Greece: A Historical Overview
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in southeastern Europe, part of the European Union (EU). Located on the south side of the Balkan Peninsula, it is bordered by Bulgaria, the Republic of North Macedonia, and Albania to the north, by Turkey to the east and west, and by the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas to the south.
Greek civilization spread to the Aegean islands, the east coast of the Aegean Sea, the southern shores of the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas, and many coastal sites around the entire Mediterranean basin. After the conquests of Alexander the Great, it would be extended eastward. Greece is a second-grade secondary civilization that arose in the course of the Greek Dark Ages, ranging from the disaster of the Mycenaean culture (12th-11th centuries BC). Greece was composed of several cultures such as the Ionian, Dorian, and Aeolian.
Cretan and Mycenaean Cultures
Cretan or Minoan culture, which is contemporaneous with the Mycenaean, gets this double name: firstly (Cretan) because it occurred on the island of Crete, and secondly (Minoan) because the most important king of Crete, or most important dynasty, was Minos. It should be noted that Cretan culture is extremely original and attractive, but rather little is known of it. We only know some aspects, and not a single name of a king (Minos can be both a title and the name of a dynasty) nor a single person’s name. It is impossible to know the political system, society, or religious beliefs.
The Mycenaean civilization is a pre-Hellenic civilization of recent Hellas (end of the Bronze Age). It gets its name from the town of Mycenae, located in the Peloponnese.
Indo-European Invasions
The Indo-European invasions were a big migration of Aryan peoples which took place around 2500 BC. Originally, these peoples inhabited the region of the Caucasus mountains (between the Caspian and Black Seas) and the Urals. From there began the migration of Aryan peoples. They are also known as Indo-Europeans because they eventually spread from India to Europe.
The Iliad and the Odyssey
The Iliad is a Greek epic poem and the oldest written work of Western literature. It is traditionally attributed to Homer. Composed in dactylic hexameter, it consists of 15,691 lines (divided by publishers, already in antiquity, into 24 songs and rhapsodies) and its plot is in the rage of Achilles. It narrates the events of 51 days in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War. The title of the work derives from the Greek name for Troy, Ilios.
The Odyssey is a Greek epic poem composed of 24 songs, attributed to the Greek poet Homer. It was supposedly written around the 8th century BC in the settlements that Greece had on the west coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey in Asia). According to others, the Odyssey was completed in the 7th century BC from poems that described only parts of the current work. It was originally written in what has been called Homeric dialect. It narrates the return home of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) after the Trojan War. Odysseus takes twenty years to return to the island of Ithaca, where he held the title of king, during which his son Telemachus and wife Penelope have to tolerate in his palace the suitors who seek to marry her (because they believed Odysseus was dead) while consuming the family assets.
Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War
Persian Wars is the name given to the clash between the Persian Empire and some of the Greek city-states during the 5th century BC. The adjective “Persian” is used because the Greeks used the terms “Median” and “Persian” as synonyms, although Media (Middle East) was in fact a region adjacent to Persia under their rule.
Pericles was an important and influential Athenian statesman and orator during the golden age of the city (specifically, between the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War). He descended from the Alcmaeonid family on his mother’s side. He was the chief strategist of Greece, a great leader, honest and virtuous. He was called the Olympian for his commanding voice.
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) was a military conflict in ancient Greece, which pitted the Delian League (led by Athens) against the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta).
Alexander the Great and His Conquests
Alexander III of Macedonia, better known as Alexander the Great, transliterated as Megas (Pella, July 20, 356 BC – Babylon, June 13, 323 BC), was the king of Macedonia from 336 BC until his death. He is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history for his conquest of the Persian Empire.
Regarding the Conquests of Alexander, there is no doubt that Alexander was tempted to try his luck by attacking the Persian Empire, which, although weakened in some respects, was still a strong state. Alexander’s fleet was smaller than the Persian army, which recruited their ships from the Phoenicians and other coastal towns of western Asia. Moreover, it could hardly be said that their finances were at their best.
Hellenistic Period
When Alexander died, the Macedonian generals began to share his vast empire. Disagreements over this division led to a series of wars between 322 BC and 275 BC, many of which took place in Greece. Therefore, a characteristic of the period covered from the death of Alexander to the conversion of Greece into a Roman province in 146 BC was the deteriorating political status of the Greek city-states, in addition to the progressive decline of political independence as a whole.
Rome: The Eternal City
Italy is located on the Apennine peninsula in southern Europe. The map is easily located by its shape, like a boot. Its neighbors are, in the mountains in the Alps, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, to the east its shores are washed by the Adriatic and Ionian seas, and to the south by the Mediterranean Sea.
Rome is the capital of Italy, and of the province bearing the same name, in turn within a region called Lazio. It has 2,850,020 inhabitants (2005 census) and an area of 1,285 km2.
It is located in the valley of the Tiber River, about 20 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea. Based in principle on seven hills to the left of the Tiber, it expanded on both banks of the river, placing industrial plants and workers’ neighborhoods in the same areas.
The Founding of Rome
The founding of Rome is reported by many legends, which in recent times have started to be supplemented by scientific reconstructions. Virgil’s Aeneid is an important source of information on the “official” version of certain historical events of that time.