Tag: Ancient Greece

The Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC. The collision between the fractious political world of the Greeks and the enormous empire of the Persians began when Cyrus the Great conquered the Greek-inh...

A History of Ancient Greece The Glory That Was GreeceAuthor: Jewsbury, LewisDate: 1992 Alcibiades (450?-404 BC) When the philosopher Socrates was tried and convicted in 399 BC for corrupting the young men of Athens, the judges may have had Alcibiades in mind. Intelligent, handsome, and charming, Alc...

The Slave of Fear (died 413 B.C.) N I K I A S by Plutarch The turning point of the war with Sparta was the disastrous Sicilian Expedition, eagerly undertaken by the greedy Athenians. Superstitious old Nicias was their reluctant leader in this debacle. After the death of Pericles, the democracy of At...

PLOUTARXOS (circa 45 - 125 A.D.) Priest of the Delphic Oracle Greece, by the turn of the first millenium, was a sad ruin of its former glory. Mighty Rome had looted its statues and reduced Greece to conquered territory. 1 Despite these circumstances, Mestrius Plutarchus (known to history as Plutarch...

The Lawmaker of Athens (died 559 B.C.) SOLWN by Plutarch Athens, unlike Sparta, was a money-mad commercial city. The constitution written by Solon mitigated the class struggle between rich and poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic institutions. Solon was born into a well-to-do family of Ath...

Romans borrowed their gods and goddesses from the Greeks and gave them new names. Below is a chart of the Greek and Roman names of the God or Goddess and a description of what they were believed to control. Greek NameRoman NameResponsibilitiesAphroditeVenusgoddess of beauty and loveAresMarsgod of wa...

Embark on an extraordinary voyage through the captivating realm of Greek mythology, a world brimming with gods, goddesses, heroes, and mythical creatures. Immerse yourself in tales of divine rivalries, epic battles, and extraordinary feats of strength and courage. Discover the origins of the cosmos,...

The Temple of Diana was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and a symbol of the city of Ephesus' power and wealth. It was built in the 6th century BC and was dedicated to the Greek goddess Diana, who was also known as Artemis. The temple was massive, measuring 120 meters long and 69 meter...

(all dates B.C.) circa 9000 Atlantis disappears. circa 1600 Island of Thera explodes, causing a tidal wave that inundates coastal settlements in the Aegean, and cripples the civilization of Crete. circa 1300 Theseus establishes the city of Athens. circa 1250 Troy falls to Agamemnon and his Greek a...

"The Good" (402 - 318 B.C.) FWKIWN by Plutarch After her defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Athens became a decadent democracy. Phocion did his best over many years to save his fellow citizens from their own foolishness, and at last he earned the reward of Socrates. In the conflict between good men an...

New research is shedding light on the fascinating bouleuterion, the ancient city hall, of Teos, an ancient Greek city located in present-day Turkey. The ruins of temples, roads, a harbor, and a rainwater cistern near Turkey's western coast reveal the once-thriving metropolis of Teos. Founded around ...

The Greeks were the first to formulate many of the Western world's fundamental concepts in politics, philosophy, science, and art. How was itthat a relative handful of people could bequeath such a legacy tocivilization? The definitive answer may always elude the historian, but a goodpart of the expl...