Last modified: 2005-01-22 by ivan sache
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The first human settlements in Greece dates back to the VIIth millenium BP. Greece was later colonized by successive waves of Indo-European peoples, the Acheans (IInd millenium BP, whose importance peaked with the Mycenes civilisation) being supplanted by the Dorians c. 1200 BP.
The Dorian period is often called the "Greek Middle Ages". The Greek cities increased in size and importance. Oligarchy progressively replaced monarchy. In the VIth century BP, Pisistrates (600-527) established the hereditary tyranny in Athens. Pisistrates' family was overthrown in 507 by Clisthenes and democracy was set up.
The Vth century BP was the peak of the Greek classical period. Athens and the allied Greek cities won the Medic wars (490-479) against the Persians, who eventually withdrew after the peace signed in 448. Athens flourished under Pericles' rule (443-429).
The hegemony of Athens ended when Sparta won the Peloponnesus War (431-404). The Spartan hegemony itself ended in 371 when the Thebans defeated Sparta in Leuctres.
King of Macedonia Philip II (355-336) progressively invaded Greece. He defeated the Athens-Theba coalition in Cheronea in 338 and placed Greece under the Macedonian rule. Philip was succeded by his son Alexander the Great (336-323). Alexander suppressed a Greek revolt and was appointed Chief of the Greeks against the Persians. He defeated them several times, conquered Egypt, where he founded Alexandria, seized Babylonia and burned Parsa (Persepolis), and stopped his conquest on the river Indus. Back in Babylonia, he attempted to organized a united Empire including the victorious and defeated peoples.
When Alexander died, his Empire was rapidly dismembered and shared among his generals. Greece was placed under the rule of the Antigonids, a dynasty founded by Antigonos Monophtalmos (381-301).
The Romans started the conquest of Greece in 216. The Antigonid King Philip V (221-179) was defeated by Consul Quinctus Flamininius in Cynoscephales in 197. Greece was granted a semi-independence under the Roman rule.
In 146, Roma defeated the revolted Greek cities. Corinth was destroyed and Greece became a Roman province. From the Ist century BP to the IV century, "Greece conquered its fierce victor": the Greek culture and civilisation dramatically influenced the Roman Empire.
In 330, Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337) inaugurated the city of Contantinople (now Istanbul, in Turkey), which became the main center of culture and religion in Greece. After the death of Emperor Theodosius in 395, the Roman Empire was shared between his two sons and Constantinople became the capital city of the East Roman Empire.
In 610, Emperor Hera