Classical Greece: history, cities, wars and culture

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Classical Greece is much more than a handful of temples and myths ; it is a very long historical process that begins in the prehistory of the Aegean, passes through the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, survives dark ages, and ends integrated into the Roman world. Along this journey, the polis , democracy, philosophy, Greek theater , impeccable art, and a way of understanding politics and war that we still study today were forged.

When we talk about "classical Greece," we usually think of Athens and Sparta , the Greco-Persian Wars, or Alexander the Great conquering half the world, but all of that is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind it lies a very particular geography, diverse economies, conflicting political systems, shared religions, striking social practices (such as pederasty and sacred prostitution), and a network of colonies that dotted the Mediterranean with Greek cities.

Chronological framework and major stages of classical Greece

Scholars don't entirely agree on exactly where "ancient Greece" begins and ends , but they generally work within fairly clear boundaries. From the disappearance of the Mycenaean civilization (around 1200 BC) to the Roman conquest of Corinth (146 BC), we can speak, in a broad sense, of the ancient Greek world; within that framework, the "classical period" is usually defined as spanning from the beginning of the 5th century BC (the Persian Wars) to the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC).

To fully understand the classical period, it is helpful to keep in mind the previous stages , because nothing appears out of nowhere:

• Dark Ages (1200-750 BC)Following the Mycenaean collapse, Linear B writing, the great fortresses, and the palatial administration were lost. The population declined, migrations increased, and the economy was reduced to subsistence agriculture. Pottery went through protogeometric and geometric phases.
• Archaic era (750-500 BC)Cities are reborn, and the use of Greek alphabet Derived from Phoenician, the first written laws appear, tyrannies and oligarchies are consolidated, and a massive colonization of the Mediterranean and Pontus is undertaken. The confrontation between Athens and Sparta begins to take shape.
• Classic period (500-323 BC): Greco-Persian Wars, Atlantic-Ionian Hegemony, Rise and Crisis of Athenian Democracy, Peloponnesian War, Spartan and Theban Hegemonies, Rise of Macedonia and Alexander's Campaigns.
• Hellenistic period (323-146 BC)Alexander's successors divided his empire into large kingdoms (Ptolemaic, Seleucid, Antigonid, etc.), Greek culture blended with Eastern traditions, the Greek cities of the mainland lost ground to centers like Alexandria or Antioch, and Rome gradually gained power.

Beyond 146 BC we usually speak of "Roman Greece" , a time when Greek cities lost political independence but retained enormous cultural weight within an increasingly Hellenized Roman Empire, especially in its eastern half.

Geography of the Greek world: Mainland Greece, Asia Minor and islands

The Greeks themselves called themselves Hellenes and their lands as a whole Hellas . This area was not a single, compact territory, but a mosaic of mountainous regions, small plains, and indented coastlines, divided among:

• La Balkan Peninsulawith regions such as Thessaly, Macedonia, Boeotia, Attica, Laconia, Argolis or Messenia.
• coasts of Asia Minor (present-day Türkiye), with areas such as Aeolis, Ionia and Doris, full of Greek cities.
• aegean islandsCrete, Euboea, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Chios, Lesbos, Rhodes, among many others.

Geography greatly influenced politics and economics . Mountains fragmented the territory, hindering the formation of large kingdoms and favoring small, autonomous communities: the famous city-states . In contrast, long coastlines and an abundance of natural harbors drew the Greeks to the sea, to trade, and to colonization.

Natural resources varied greatly from region to region . Attica had important silver mines; iron was mined in Laconia, Boeotia, and Euboea; Euboea also had copper, but needed to import tin. Macedonia was rich in gold. The abundance of quality clay gave rise to a powerful pottery industry, essential for foreign trade, while marble and stone allowed for monumental architecture that we still admire today.

The Aegean islands served as strategic hubs for communication and trade . Euboea combined hills, fertile soils, and copper; in the Cyclades, some islands were volcanic while others were excellent for vineyards and citrus fruits; and Paros and Sifnos thrived on marble and silver mining. In the Dodecanese, Samos, Ikaria, and Rhodes became key agricultural and commercial centers on the trade routes to Egypt and the East.

From Aegean prehistory to the Dark Ages

The first traces of human presence in Greek territory date back to the Paleolithic period , but it is around 7000 BC, during the Neolithic period, that settled communities practicing agriculture, animal husbandry, and pottery are documented. Over time, they adopted bronze tools and came into contact with immigrant populations.

Between the end of the 3rd millennium and the 2nd millennium BC, the so-called Helladic period developed , which historians divide into several phases:

• Early Helladic (2600-2000 BC): agrarian pottery populations, probably speaking non-Indo-European languages, dominate the Aegean.
• Middle Helladic (2000-1600 BC): improved pottery, use of the horse and new funerary practices.
• Late Helladic or Mycenaean (1600-1150 BC): irruption of Indo-European peoples (Achaeans, Ionians), knowledge of metals, war chariots, monumental fortifications in Mycenae, Tiryns or Pylos, intense trade with Troy, Sicily or Italy and expansion through the eastern Aegean.

Meanwhile, the Minoan civilization flourished in Crete, centered at Knossos . The Minoans and Mycenaeans maintained close relations; the latter likely assimilated many features of the former. Cretan palaces display a remarkable level of technical sophistication (sanitary facilities, ventilation systems, frescoes, decorative weapons), and their power was such that they were not even surrounded by walls.

Both civilizations collapsed around the 12th century BC , for reasons still debated: invasions by the Dorians or Sea Peoples, natural disasters, or internal crises. This collapse gave way to the so-called Dark Ages (1200-750 BC), marked by the disappearance of Linear B script, demographic decline, mass migrations, artistic impoverishment, and the abandonment of monumental architecture.

In the Dark Ages, the economy was reduced to the bare minimum : subsistence agriculture practiced by slaves, day laborers, and sharecroppers; limited livestock farming concentrated in the hands of a few; small communities of a few dozen people, with an increase in nomadism. Mycenaean cults survived, but pottery and the arts declined, and only gradually, in the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, did technical improvement begin to emerge.

Birth of the polis and colonial expansion

Between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, Greece emerged from this period of relative obscurity and witnessed the birth of the polis , the city-state, as the fundamental political unit. Each polis was a community of citizens with its own institutions, laws, and customs, as well as a territory and dependent villages.

The organization into family clans gives way to more complex urban communities . The mountains continue to separate valleys and plains, so the natural order is not a large, unified kingdom, but rather a constellation of small, independent cities that, nevertheless, share language, religion, and many values. Herodotus could classify the poleis by tribes, but politically they were fiercely protective of their autonomy.

The initial regimes were usually monarchies of limited scope , which were gradually replaced by aristocratic oligarchies . In Athens, for example, the former king was reduced to archon, first for life and hereditary, then elected, and finally serving for one year. The aristocracy divided power among itself, and the rest of the population was excluded from important decisions.

Population growth and a lack of land lead to social tensions . Indebted peasants become dependents or slaves; wealthy merchants demand political power; and old noble families try to maintain their privileges. In many cities, this results in the rise of tyrants , leaders who seize power outside the bounds of the law, often supported by popular sectors fed up with aristocratic abuses.

Between the mid-8th and late 6th centuries BC, a massive colonization took place , known as the expansion across Magna Graecia and Pontus. The Greeks founded cities in southern Italy and Sicily (Syracuse, Neapolis), on the southern coast of France (Massalia), on the northeastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Black Sea, in Cyrenaica (Libya), and in key locations such as Byzantium.

These colonies were not subordinate “branches ,” but autonomous city-states, although they often maintained close religious and commercial ties with the metropolis that founded them. Their role was crucial in spreading the Greek language and culture, opening long-distance trade routes, and partially alleviating the demographic pressure on their home cities.

Athens and Sparta: two opposing models

By the Archaic period, Athens and Sparta had become the two political poles of Greece , with practically opposing models. This antagonism would mark much of classical history.

In Athens, Solon's reforms (early 6th century BC) attempted to defuse the social crisis by freeing peasants enslaved by debt, easing economic burdens, and broadening the basis for political participation, although it was still largely limited by wealth. Even so, the city later fell under the tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons.

It was Cleisthenes, at the end of the 6th century BC, who laid the foundations of future democracy . He reorganized the population into demes (local districts) and new artificial tribes that mixed urban, coastal, and inland areas; he expanded the City Council (Boule) to 500 members chosen by lot; and he established ostracism , a mechanism to banish for ten years individuals considered dangerous to the system.

During the Pentekontaetia, between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, Athens completed the construction of its democracy . Ephialtes significantly curtailed the aristocratic powers of the Areopagus and strengthened the popular bodies; Pericles, in the mid-5th century BC, generalized the remuneration of public offices, promoted charitable policies and large public works (such as the Parthenon) financed with the tributes of the Delian League, and defined a very restricted citizenship (child of Athenian parents).

In Sparta, however, a dual monarchy and a markedly aristocratic and militarized system were maintained . Society was divided into three main groups: the homoioi (“equals”), full Spartan citizens; the perioeci , free inhabitants but without political rights, dedicated to trade and crafts; and the helots , a subjugated population that worked the land and served as the economic base of the system.

The Spartan constitution, attributed to the mythical Lycurgus, combines monarchical, oligarchic, and popular elements . Two hereditary kings share power (primarily military and religious), overseen by a college of five ephors elected annually; the Gerousia, a council of elders composed of 28 gerontes and the two kings, exercises high-level legislative and judicial functions; and the Apella (assembly of male citizens over 30 years of age) ratifies, with little debate, the proposals of the higher bodies.

The Spartan state was obsessively focused on military training and internal control . The agoge was an extremely rigorous public education system: from the age of seven, boys lived in groups, trained naked and barefoot, slept on makeshift beds, endured hunger and cold to toughen them up, and were closely supervised by the ephors. After various phases and rites of passage (including tests such as ritual flagellation before the altar of Artemis Orthia), they only attained full citizenship at the age of thirty.

Adult male life revolves around communal meals (sistias) and military service . Citizens dine each night in closed groups, consuming frugal diets such as the famous "black broth," and only those who participate in these meals maintain their citizenship. The state controls even private life: marriage and procreation are encouraged, single people are punished, and unusual arrangements are permitted to ensure healthy offspring.

Greco-Persian Wars: Greece versus the Persian Empire

The spectacular beginning of the Classical period is marked by the clash between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire . Persians and Medes, Indo-European peoples settled on the Iranian plateau, had created under the Achaemenid dynasty a territorial colossus stretching from the Indus to the Aegean. Cyrus the Great subdued the Medes, conquered Lydia and its Ionian cities, and annexed Babylon and much of Asia.

The Greek cities of Asia Minor, integrated into the Persian system, suffered heavy taxation and lost their commercial importance to the Phoenicians, who were favored by the king. Furthermore, the Persians supported tyrannical aristocratic regimes, thus equating the struggle for local democracy with resistance against the eastern ruler.

In 499 BC, the Ionian Revolt erupted, with Miletus at its head . Aristagoras, its tyrant, after a failed expedition to Naxos, led an uprising that spread throughout Ionia. Athens and Eretria sent aid and even went so far as to burn Sardis, but the Persian response proved devastating: the Greek fleet was defeated at Lade, Miletus fell in 493 BC, and the rebellion collapsed.

Darius I decided to punish the mainland city-states that had supported the revolt and, at the same time, extend his dominion . After a failed campaign in Thrace and a first unsuccessful attempt to penetrate from the north, he organized a large expedition that landed on the plain of Marathon in 490 BC. Sparta, occupied with its religious festivals, did not arrive in time; Athens, under Miltiades, and the small city of Plataea put up a fight and achieved a surprising victory.

Ten years later, Xerxes I prepared a far more ambitious invasion . He assembled a huge army and an impressive fleet, opened a canal through Mount Athos to prevent shipwrecks like those of Mardonius, secured support in Thessaly and Boeotia, and relied on an alliance with Carthage to distract the Greek colonies in Sicily.

Faced with this threat, the city-states formed a Panhellenic League under Spartan leadership . They decided to close the land pass at Thermopylae and the sea pass at Artemisium. Leonidas heroically resisted the Persian advance in the strait, but ultimately fell with his 300 Spartans and some allies; with the passage lost, the Greek fleet retreated south.

Athens is evacuated and captured and burned by the Persians , but the key will lie at sea. The Greek fleet, formally commanded by the Spartan Eurybiades, actually follows Themistocles' strategy and lures the Persian fleet into the Strait of Salamis, where the enemy's numerical superiority becomes an obstacle and the Greek triremes achieve a resounding victory.

Xerxes returned to Asia, leaving Mardonius in Greece with a substantial army . After a tentative campaign and peace offers (rejected by Athens), the two sides clashed on the plain of Plataea in 479 BC. There, the Spartan hoplites and their allies won a decisive victory. That same year, the Greek fleet triumphed at Mycale, off the coast of Asia Minor, and the Ionian cities rose up again.

Delian League and Athenian Hegemony

With the major battles over, the Persian threat did not disappear overnight . The cities of the Aegean and the Asian coast sought a stable defensive structure and grouped themselves into a symmachia (alliance) based at the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos, the famous Delian League , led by Athens as hegemon.

Initially, each allied city contributed ships and/or a tribute (phoros) in money , calculated according to its means. These resources maintained a common fleet that continued to harass the Persians on various fronts (Thrace, Hellespont, Cyprus, Egypt). However, over time, Athens transformed this alliance into a true maritime empire.

In 454 BC, the League's treasury was moved from Delos to the Acropolis of Athens . From then on, a substantial portion of the tributes funded Athenian monumental works and the functioning of its democracy (payments to jurors, councilors, and magistrates). Cities that attempted to withdraw from the League or reduce their contributions were punished with Athenian garrisons, destruction of their walls, or the imposition of cleruchies (Athenian settlers with plots of land in allied territory).

Athenian hegemony brought both advantages and tensions . On the one hand, it guaranteed a degree of security on maritime routes, standardized monetary and legal systems, and facilitated the movement of people and ideas. On the other hand, it drastically curtailed the autonomy of many city-states and clashed with the interests of powers like Corinth and Aegina, allies of Sparta.

The Peace of Callias (449 BC) consolidated the Persian withdrawal from the Aegean , but did not eliminate internal frictions between Greek factions. The Thirty Years' Peace (446/445 BC) attempted to freeze the situation: Athens dominated the sea and the Ionian world; Sparta, mainland Greece and the Peloponnese. Even so, tensions continued to build.

The Peloponnesian War and the decline of the classical polis

The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), recounted in detail by Thucydides, is the great internal conflict of the classical Greek world . At its core, it pitted the two major political and military blocs against each other: the Delian League, led by a democratic and thalassocratic Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by an oligarchic and land-based Sparta.

Thucydides distinguishes several phases, although the reality was much more complex . The so-called Archidamian War (431-421 BC) saw the Spartan king Archidamus II periodically invade Attica, while Athens avoided land battles and relied on its fleet. A devastating plague ravaged the city in the early years of the conflict and killed a large part of the population, including Pericles himself.

After years of attrition, the Peace of Nicias (421 BC) attempted to end hostilities , but it proved to be only an unstable truce. In 415 BC, Athens committed a colossal strategic error: the Sicilian Expedition. It entered into a local war between Segesta and Selinus and dispatched a massive armada to attack Syracuse; the result, after political maneuvering (including the flight of Alcibiades), was a military and economic disaster.

From there begins what is sometimes called the Decelean War or Ionian phase (413-404 BC) . Sparta occupies the Attic deme of Decelea, from where it harasses the Athenian camp year-round, and explicitly allies itself with Persia, which clearly sees the benefit of weakening Athens. Many cities of the League revolt, and Sparta helps them.

In Athens, oligarchic coups such as that of the Four Hundred (411 BC) took place , establishing a restricted government with Spartan and Persian support, although democracy was later restored. The Athenian fleet still achieved some brilliant victories, such as that of Arginusae (406 BC), but its capabilities were waning.

The naval battle of Aegospotami (405 BC), in the Hellespont, marked the point of no return . Lysander, the Spartan admiral, destroyed virtually the entire Athenian fleet and cut off the grain supply that arrived via the straits. In 404 BC, Athens capitulated: it tore down its Long Walls, surrendered its few remaining ships, and accepted a brief oligarchic regime under the Thirty Tyrants.

The war leaves all of Greece exhausted . Sparta enjoys a short and troubled hegemony; internal inequalities within its own civic body worsen. New alliances, such as the League of Corinth and the Boeotian League, and new hegemonies, such as Theban one after the victory at Leuctra (371 BC) and the liberation of Messenia, will soon emerge.

Macedonia, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic world

In this context of weakened cities, a new power emerged: Macedonia , a kingdom north of Greece, with a Greek language and culture, but considered "barbaric" by many southern Greeks. Philip II (359-336 BC) thoroughly reformed his army (the famous Macedonian phalanx with long sarissas), unified his kingdom, and embarked on a systematic expansion.

In twenty years, Philip dominated Thessaly, Thrace, and much of central Greece . The Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) dealt the final blow to the system of autonomous city-states: the Macedonian army defeated the allied forces of Athens and Thebes. Shortly afterward, Philip convened the League of Corinth, a federation of cities under Macedonian hegemony, with the official objective of waging a pan-Hellenic war against Persia.

Philip was assassinated in 336 BC and succeeded by his son Alexander , who was educated by Aristotle. Alexander resumed the campaign against Persia and within a few years achieved a string of spectacular victories (Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela), overthrew the Achaemenid dynasty, conquered Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and reached the Indus River. His empire stretched from the Balkans to India.

The premature death of Alexander in Babylon (323 BC) ushered in a long period of wars between his generals, the Diadochi . Ultimately, his empire fragmented into several Hellenistic kingdoms: the Ptolemaic in Egypt, the Seleucid in the Levant and Inland Asia, the Antigonid in Macedonia, and smaller entities in Central Asia and India.

In the Hellenistic world, "Greece proper" loses prominence . The great cultural centers are Alexandria, Pergamon, and Antioch, with their libraries, philosophical schools, and royal patronage. Koine Greek , a common variety of Greek, becomes dominant, serving as a lingua franca from Egypt to Central Asia. Greek culture blends with local traditions in a rich syncretism.

Rome enters the scene as an increasingly influential player . From the 3rd century BC onward, the Macedonian wars and interventions in Greece (always employing the "divide and conquer" strategy) gradually eroded the autonomy of the city-states and the Hellenistic kingdoms themselves. The defeat of Perseus at Pydna (168 BC) marked the end of independent Macedonia, and the destruction of Corinth (146 BC) signified the full integration of Greece into the Roman system.

Society, slavery and daily life in classical Greece

Classical Greek society was structured around citizenship , but not everyone enjoyed it. In Athens, only adult males, born to Athenian parents and registered in a deme, were full citizens. Female citizens counted toward the transmission of status, but did not participate in politics.

Below the civic body were the metics and the slaves . Metics were resident foreigners with formal permits and specific tax obligations; many were merchants, artisans, or bankers and lived comfortably, but without political rights and, with few exceptions, without full access to property ownership. Slaves constituted a large part of the population, especially in wealthy cities: they might be prisoners of war, people reduced to servitude due to debt in other contexts, or children of slaves.

Slavery took different forms depending on the polis . In Sparta, helots were state slaves assigned to citizen families; in Athens, most slaves worked in homes, workshops, mines, or as public servants (for example, detecting counterfeit currency). In many cases, they could start families, accumulate some wealth, and even buy their freedom, but they remained, by definition, the property of others.

Daily life was heavily influenced by gender and status . Male citizens alternated between political obligations (attending the assembly, serving on juries, holding magistracies), military duties (serving as hoplites or sailors), and social obligations (banquets, gymnasiums, religious ceremonies). Free women were primarily responsible for the home, childcare, and the internal management of the household, with varying degrees of visibility depending on the city (Spartan women, for example, enjoyed greater autonomy and public presence than Athenian women).

In matters of sexuality and gender, the Greek world was more diverse than common stereotypes suggest . There were no general laws punishing specific orientations, but there were norms regarding age, roles, and contexts; male pederasty, for example, was presented as an educational relationship between an adult and a pubescent adolescent, governed by strong social codes. Relationships between women appear in literature (Sappho, certain myths), although they are less visible.

Prostitution was widespread and ranged from marginal to high-class . Hetairai were educated courtesans, often foreigners or freedwomen, who paid taxes, received an education, and frequented symposia; figures like Aspasia of Miletus actively participated in the informal intellectual and political life of Athens. Alongside this, there was common prostitution and, in some sanctuaries of Aphrodite and her eastern predecessors, forms of sacred prostitution associated with rituals.

Religion, mythology and Panhellenic festivals

Greek religion is polytheistic, civic, and closely linked to public life . Each polis has its own patron gods and festivals, but there is a shared pantheon in which the twelve Olympians stand out : Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, and Dionysus.

Alongside these major gods are a multitude of minor deities, heroes, and daemons . Figures like Hades and Persephone rule the underworld; Hestia watches over the hearth; Nike personifies victory; Heracles and Achilles, semi-divine heroes, embody models of strength and courage. Mythology offers accounts of the origin of the world, the gods, and human institutions, and its repertoire includes legendary animals . Mythology is transmitted primarily through poetry (Homer, Hesiod) and theater.

Religious practices encompassed sacrifices, processions, athletic and musical competitions, ritual banquets, and oracles . The great Panhellenic sanctuaries (Olympia for Zeus, Delphi for Apollo, Nemea, and Isthmia, among others) were centers of worship, prestige, and political and cultural exchange.

Panhellenic athletic competitions are a distinctive feature of Greek culture . The Olympic Games , documented since 776 BC, brought together athletes from multiple city-states every four years; during their celebration, a sacred truce was proclaimed to ensure the safe passage of participants and spectators, and the victors received laurel wreaths . There were also the Pythian Games at Delphi, the Nemean Games at Nemea, and the Isthmian Games on the Isthmus of Corinth, all with programs of athletic and equestrian events, and often musical or poetic performances.

Women also participate in specific competitions, such as the Heraean Games in honor of Hera , with races by age categories. Furthermore, many civic festivals, such as the Panathenaea in Athens, combine ritual, processions, and sporting and artistic competitions, reinforcing civic identity.

Culture, education, philosophy and art

Education in classical Greece, except in Sparta, was primarily private . From the age of seven, boys from wealthy families attended various schools: the grammatistés taught them reading, writing, and arithmetic; the kitharistés , music and singing; and the paidotribes , physical exercise. A slave tutor accompanied and supervised them. From the age of twelve, physical training became more prominent (wrestling, running, discus, javelin), and some young men pursued higher studies at philosophical academies.

The ideal of paideia aims to form well-rounded citizens, not specialists in a single trade . General knowledge, the ability to speak well in public, mastery of the body through sport, and familiarity with poetry and music are considered essential. In the 4th century BC, schools such as Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum offered comprehensive programs in philosophy, science, ethics, and politics.

Greek philosophy, which began with the Pre-Socratics, reached a remarkable level of development during the Classical period . From the attempts to explain the cosmos by Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, and Parmenides, it progressed to the ethical and political reflections of Socrates , and later to the great systems of Plato and Aristotle, which addressed almost every field of knowledge: metaphysics, logic, ethics, politics, biology, physics, and aesthetics.

In parallel, a rich literary tradition developed . Homer, although predating the strict Classical period, continued to define the canon with the Iliad and the Odyssey ; Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides created tragedies that explored to their limits the tensions between the individual, law, fate, and the gods, helping to define dramatic works ; Aristophanes cultivated political and social comedy with biting wit. Historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon invented distinct ways of recounting the past.

Classical art reached its zenith in the Age of Pericles . Sculpture evolved from archaic rigidity to the idealized naturalism of the Classical period, with masters such as Myron, Polyclitus, and Phidias; Doric and Ionic architecture was perfected in temples like the Parthenon; and black-figure and red-figure pottery displayed an inexhaustible repertoire of mythological, war, and everyday scenes.

Music, though less preserved in terms of scores, held enormous importance in Greek life . Scales, modes, and harmonies were theorized; stringed instruments (lyre, cithara, pandura), wind instruments (aulos, double flutes), and percussion were used. Associations of professional musicians existed, and musical proficiency was a sign of social refinement.

Classical Greece is a laboratory in which political forms are tested, philosophical traditions are established, and artistic models are created that will continue to inspire the Renaissance, Neoclassicism, and, in one way or another, Western culture to this day, even when that political Greece disappears as an independent whole and is diluted first in the Hellenistic world and then in the Roman world.