Ancient Greece | History | The Entire History of Ancient Greece

We all think we know real ancient Greece, the mighty Parthenon, fearless 300 Spartans and the legendary tales of Homer. But what if I told you that most of what we believe is actually wrong? Not sure? Don't worry, just stay with me for a few minutes and we will discover that the Parthenon is not just a temple, it was a bank. Ancient Greece was never a unified country and the journey from Trojan War to Alexander the Great, it was as ancient as the Vikings are to us. So let's jump into the real and fascinating story of ancient Greece and we'll try to do it way faster than 2,000 years. Around 3,700 years ago, while the mighty pyramids of Egypt stood tall and Babylon ruled as the world's greatest city. However, on the island of Crete, a mysterious civilization had flourished. One with three-storied palaces, intricate art, and with no defenses. The Minoans, as we call them, apparently led a relatively peaceful lives. Blue monkeys, beautiful flowers, and women strolling around topless, while men sported stylish loincloths or skirts. They had an advanced navy, their own writing system, and nobody has able to decipher them. And until one day, on the island of Thera, modern day wedding heaven of Santorini, and the disaster struck. The largest volcanic eruption in European history wiped out the Minoan civilization and it is presumed the rise to the myth of Atlantis. Tsunamis hundreds of meters high and ash clouds turned day into night for thousands of miles. And this incident devastated the Crete. This catastrophe may have inspired the legend of Atlantis. And as Crete struggled to recover, invaders arrived in. The once peaceful island, armed with bronze weapons and new writing system with strange language, which came out to be the earliest form of Greek used by warlike tribe, which has established the mainland. Developing such towns as Mycenae, Athens, and Pylos. But these cities already sheltered behind six meter walls. Life here was not peaceful at all. Centuries later, the Greeks forgot that another civilization had lived on Crete before them. To explain the huge ruins, they created myths about giant cyclopes building them. Even the Minotaur, a creature from legend, was considered partly Greek. The Greeks were skilled at adopting things from other cultures, including Crete's traditions, like playing sports while wearing clothes. By conquering Crete, they also took control of the seas, which made them wealthier through trade. In fact, most of the writings found in Mycenaean tombs weren't about myths or battles. They were records of money and trade. Mycenae played the biggest role in the war against Troy. For a long time, people thought Homer's Iliad was just a myth. But about 150 years ago, a wealthy amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann proved otherwise by discovering the ruins of Mycenaean Troy. Today, a replica of the famous Trojan horse stands there. Archaeologists have found evidence of fire and destruction in Troy. But it wasn't just Troy that suffered. Many other cities in the region also collapsed. Constant attacks from barbarian tribes turned the entire Mediterranean into a battleground. For the next 400 years, Greece entered a period known as the Dark Age. People forgot how to read and write, so we have no written records from that time. Thankfully, we do have Homer, the famous poet who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. But in reality, we don't know what he looked like, when he lived, or even if he was a single person or multiple storytellers. His stories, though written down later, give us a glimpse into life during this period. Kings were considered powerful simply because they owned more pigs, and their fathers slept on the ground with their slaves. People couldn't read or write and used cattle instead of money. Very different from the grand palaces of Mycenae. So, what happened? The Mycenaean civilization was wiped out by the Durians, a Greek-speaking group who were much less advanced. The original Mycenaean people either fled to the mountains or escaped to the east. The Durians kept only the most basic technologies, like sailing and pottery typing, and it took them 400 years just to start creating simple artwork again. But things began to change around the 9th and 8th centuries, when Mycenaean Greek cities in Ionia, modern-day Turkey, adopted a new alphabet from their Phoenician neighbors. This alphabet was completely different from the old Mycenaean writing and would eventually evolve into the Greek letters we recognize today. This is where we start to see the rise of ancient Greece. But Greece, as a single country, never really existed. There were no fixed borders or a central capital. Instead, it was made up of many independent city-states, each with its own government. This division was largely due to Greece's geography, with mountains and the sea naturally separating different regions. Only a few areas were good for farming, and even basic crops like grain had to be imported. But instead of relying on imports, why not grow food in new lands across the sea? This idea led to a wave of Greek colonization. According to early historians, the city of Miletus alone established around 90 colonies. The Greeks spread across the Mediterranean, colonizing areas like southern Italy, where their alphabet took root, and later evolved into Latin, shaping the language of the western world. Greek influence stretched from modern-day Russia, Rostov-on-Don, to France, Marseille, even helping to establish France's famous wine culture. Evidence of their vast trade networks can still be found today in the form of broken amphorae ceramic storage jars scattered from Gibraltar to Georgia. These jars were used to transport goods like grain and wine, though Greeks always mixed their wine with water, believing that only uncivilized barbarians drank it straight. To support this growing trade, the Greeks also adopted coinage, much like they had borrowed the alphabet from their neighbors. According to Plato, the Greeks spread around the Mediterranean like frogs around a pond. However, two major cities, Athens and Sparta, took a different path and barely participated in colonization. Sparta descended from the warlike Dorians who had destroyed Mycenaean civilization, solved its land shortage by conquering nearby Mycenae, a fertile region. The local people were turned into helots, a group somewhere between slaves and serfs, and they vastly outnumbered the Spartans. To maintain control, Sparta transformed into a strict military state, focused on preventing any rebellion. Athens, on the other hand, had to find a different solution to its land problems. Instead of conquest, tensions between the aristocracy and common people led to a compromise, and from this democracy was born. But before democracy, Athens went through a period of tyrants. Unlike the modern meaning of the word, a Greek tyrant wasn't always cruel. He was usually an aristocrat who had fallen out with his peers and gained power by promising a better life to the common people. Once in control, a tyrant's main goal was to stay in power, often by driving out rival aristocrats and distracting the public with festivals and new religious cults. Harsh punishments awaited those who opposed them, but in the end, tyranny didn't last. When the tyrants were overthrown, the aristocrats and common people reached an agreement that gave rise to Greek democracy. However, if an ancient Greek saw modern democracy, he would probably call it an oligarchy. Unlike today's system, where representatives make decisions, Greek democracy was direct. Every citizen could vote on laws, but citizen had a narrow definition. Only free adult males were included, which meant less than a quarter of Athens' population had political rights. Women, slaves, and foreign workers, medics, were completely excluded. By the middle of the 6th century, the Ionian cities had become the most advanced in Greece, even surpassing Athens and Sparta. They were the first to adopt eastern innovations like the alphabet, coinage, mathematics, naval fleets, and complex trade networks. However, a new threat emerged, the vast Persian Empire. Miletus, one of the leading Ionian cities, tried to resist with the help of the Phoenicians, but their efforts failed. The Persians burned the city and continued their conquest, attempting to take over Greece for the next 20 years. We know about these events thanks to Herodotus, the first historian. According to his accounts, many Greeks actually fought for the Persians, just as others supported Athens and Sparta. But how did the Greeks manage to win? The first key factor was military strategy. At the Battle of Marathon, the Greeks used the phalanx, a tight, disciplined formation of heavily armed soldiers. The Persians reportedly lost 6,400 men, while the Athenians lost only 192, plus the messenger who ran the 42-kilometer distance to Athens, to deliver news of the victory before collapsing and dying. The second factor became legendary. At the narrow pass of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans, along with several thousand allies and their helot servants, held off the massive Persian army for three days. Although they were eventually defeated, the Spartan warriors' fierce resistance demonstrated the military discipline that made Sparta famous. The third factor was the navy, a few years before the invasion. Large silver deposits were discovered near Athens. Instead of using the for other purposes, the Athenians invested it in building 203 fast and maneuverable warships, called triremes. These ships played a decisive role in defeating the Persian navy in a major battle. With the Persian invasion halted, the Greeks went on the counterattack. In Sicily, they defeated their longtime rivals, Carthage, while a scattered collection of city-states successfully defended the land where classical Greek culture would flourish. To defeat Persia once and for all and free the cities in Asia, Athens established a powerful naval alliance. This marked the moment when Athens became the dominant force in the Greek world. Around 150 cities joined the alliance, agreeing to pay annual contributions to support a shared army and navy. Originally, the alliance's treasury was kept on Delos, the sacred island of Apollo. However, Athens soon took control, arguing that it was more financially stable. Naturally, the new headquarters of the alliance was set up in Athens itself. The most prestigious construction project of the 5th century BC was the Parthenon. While often seen as a temple, it also functioned as a kind of central bank, safeguarding the alliance's wealth. Without this financial backing, many of the great achievements of classical Greek sculpture, theater, and philosophy might never have existed. The leading figure of this period was the strategist and orator Pericles. He negotiated a 30-year peace treaty with Sparta, rebuilt the Acropolis after its destruction by the Persians, and extended the city's fortifications. Athens was redesigned in a structured grid pattern, similar to what would later be used in cities like New York. Meanwhile, great minds were shaping Greek culture. The sculptor Phidias left behind timeless works in stone, and the philosopher Anaxagoras proposed a radical idea that the sun was not the god Helios, but a massive burning celestial body. In just 50 years, Athens became the intellectual and artistic center of the ancient world. Sparta and its allies became envious of Athens' growing wealth and power. Ever since their joint victory over the Persians, tensions had been rising, and by 431 BC, open conflict erupted. The Spartans and their allies laid siege to Athens, cutting off its crucial grain supply from Africa. Trapped behind their great walls, the Athenians suffered outbreaks of disease, possibly typhus or the plague. Even their leader Pericles succumbed to illness, leaving the city in the hands of opportunistic politicians. With power shifting to those who made the most extravagant promises, Pericles' ambitious but reckless nephew, Alcibiades, rose to command the Athenian forces. He proposed an audacious plan. Forget the war with Sparta and launch a bold invasion of Sicily instead. The Athenian fleet was ready to sail, but on the eve of their departure, something bizarre happened. Someone went through the city, vandalizing statues of Hermes, breaking off their most distinctive features. Alcibiades was accused of orchestrating this act to stir unrest, but instead of facing trial, he fled to Sparta and offered his services to Athens' enemies. One by one, Athens' allies abandoned it. Eventually, the city was forced to surrender, agreeing to tear down its mighty defensive walls as part of a humiliating peace agreement. The golden age of Athens had come to an end, yet despite the political downfall, this period saw a remarkable cultural peak. Greek tragedy and comedy thrived, with playwrights like Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides crafting dramas that are still performed today. Aristophanes, the master of comedy, satirized the turbulent politics of the time. Ironically, these plays were never intended to last. Each performance was expected to be a one-time event, but as Athens' political fortunes crumbled, its cultural legacy endured. The Peloponnesian War left no true victor. Every Greek city suffered, and the entire region fell into decline. But just as Greece weakened, an unexpected force rose from the north. The Macedonians. They were distant relatives of the Greeks, but had long been dismissed as semi-barbarians. Even Aristotle, one of Greece's greatest philosophers, took a job in Macedonia tutoring a remarkably gifted boy, the son of King Philip II. Philip II transformed Macedonia into a powerful kingdom, defeating a coalition of Greek city-states. His goal was to unite Greece and lead a campaign against the Persian Empire. But before he could fulfill his vision, he was assassinated. His son, Alexander, whom history remembers as Alexander the Great, took up the mission. He led a brilliant military campaign across Asia, crushing the Persian king Darius's army. Even after reaching the riches of India, he refused to turn back. From his conquests, a new world emerged. The Hellenistic world, Greek, and Eastern cultures merged, creating a unique civilization. Cities named Alexandria appeared across his vast empire, though they lacked democracy. Greek became the language of administration across Asia, and Eastern gods stood side by side with those of Mount Olympus. In Egypt, Alexander was even declared a god. He adopted Eastern customs, requiring others to kneel before him. We can only guess what his rule might have become. Some Greek records suggest he even encouraged the spread of Buddhism. But before his vision could fully take shape, Alexander died young. The city where he died, Babylon, briefly became the capital of his empire, an empire that immediately began to fracture. As Alexander's successors fought among themselves, a new rising power emerged in the West, that is Rome. In 146 BC, the Romans conquered Greece, and by 30 BC they seized Egypt. The last stronghold of Hellenistic culture, yet despite Rome's military victories, it was Greek culture that truly triumphed. The Romans embraced Greek literature, studying the Iliad and Odyssey in their original language. Later, even the New Testament was written in Greek. In 330 AD, Emperor Constantine established a new capital on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium-Constantinople. This marked the beginning of the Byzantine Empire, which carried Greek culture forward for another thousand years. Its influence even shaped the Russian alphabet, which traces its roots to this era. Thank you for watching this video. Show your support by like, share and comment. And if you want even more history, watch our video The History of the Roman Empire, where we've compressed centuries worth of events in 15 minutes. And be sure to subscribe Legacy of Centuries so you never miss out on more epic history. See you in the next video.