ancient Greek civilization: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	Hellàda • Hellàs
Date	1200 BCE - 323

Photos and Videos

The Parthenon stands atop the Acropolis hill in Athens, Greece, surrounded by ancient stone walls and ruins, with city buildings and a distant hill in the background.

Map of Ancient Greece showing regions, major cities, and islands around the Aegean, Ionian, and Mediterranean Seas. Key locations such as Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, Peloponnesus, and notable cities like Athens, Sparta, and Delphi are labeled, along with surrounding seas and geographic features.

Stone ruins and two standing column fragments remain at the site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Turkey, with grassy fields and distant buildings in the background.

Historical map of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions showing the expansion of Greek settlements from the 9th to 6th centuries BCE. Symbols in different colors and shapes indicate the founding centuries of each settlement, with sites spread across southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Black Sea coast. Major bodies of water and geographic features are labeled.

Theseus slaying the Minotaur

remains of the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Ruins of a Doric temple with tall stone columns at Selinus near Selinunte, Sicily, with the sea visible in the background and vegetation in the foreground.

Battle of Salamis

Olympic medals hang against a blurry background.

How did a corpse win an ancient Olympic event?

Ancient Greece: From Philip II to the Roman Empire

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Visit the ruins of the ancient Greek colony of Paestum and discover its history, culture, and society

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Major Events

Mythological figure

Hellenistic age

Battle of Salamis

Greco-Persian Wars

Painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo showing crowds pulling the large wooden Trojan Horse into the city of Troy, with excited figures and ancient buildings in the background.

Trojan War

Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

Parthenon frieze with Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis

Classical antiquity

David, Jacques-Louis: Leonidas at Thermopylae

Battle of Thermopylae

Chios

Battle of Chios

Pylos

Battle of Pylos

Black and white illustration of heavily armored Spartan soldiers with shields and spears fighting in close combat at the Battle of Plataea, with fallen warriors on the ground.

Battle of Plataea

Naval engagement during the Siege of Syracuse

Siege of Syracuse

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Battle of Salamis

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Messenian Wars

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Law of Leptines

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Battle of Artemisium

Temple of Poseidon

Attica

ancient district, Greece

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Magna Graecia

Greek cities, ancient Italy

Trabzon: Aya Sofya

Trabzon

Turkey

Miletus: Greco-Roman theatre

Miletus

ancient city, Turkey

Paestum: Temple of Apollo

Paestum

ancient city, Italy

Epidaurus: amphitheatre

Epidaurus

ancient city, Greece

Pylos

Pylos

ancient site, Greece

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Sybaris

ancient city, Italy

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Tauric Chersonese

ancient region, Ukraine

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Naukratis

ancient Greek settlement, Egypt

Náousa

Páros

island, Greece

Eretria, ancient Greek town

Eretria

ancient town, Greece

Elis

Elis

ancient city-state, Greece

Amphipolis

Amphipolis

ancient city, Greece

detail of a Doric temple

Selinus

ancient city, Sicily

Key People

Marble bust of Aristotle with a beard and draped robe, showing detailed facial features and wavy hair, set against a dark background.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher

Socrates

Socrates

Greek philosopher

The Greek philosopher Plato

Plato

Greek philosopher

Euripides

Euripides

Greek dramatist

Pericles

Pericles

Athenian statesman

Plutarch

Plutarch

Greek biographer

Sophocles

Sophocles

Greek dramatist

Demosthenes

Demosthenes

Greek statesman and orator

Hear a reading of ancient Greek poet Pindar's first Olympic ode, commissioned by Sicilian prince Hiero

Pindar

Greek poet

Xenophon, statue in front of the parliament building in Vienna.

Xenophon

Greek historian

Aristophanes

Aristophanes

Greek dramatist

Marble statue of Polybius seated with one arm raised, draped in classical robes, against a blue sky in Vienna, Austria. The base is inscribed with the name Polybius.

Polybius

Greek historian

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Isocrates

Greek orator and rhetorician

Schliemann, Heinrich

Heinrich Schliemann

German archaeologist

Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Greek physician

Hesiod

Hesiod

Greek poet

Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Epicurus

Greek philosopher

Alcibiades and Timon

Alcibiades

Athenian politician and general

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Epaminondas

Greek statesman

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Miltiades the Younger

Athenian general

Marble bust of Alexander the Great, in the British Museum, London, England. Hellenistic Greek, 2nd-1st century BC. Said to be from Alexandria, Egypt. Height: 37 cm.

Ancient Greece

Temple ruins of columns and statures at Karnak, Egypt (Egyptian architecture; Egyptian archaelogy; Egyptian history)

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