Outline of Ancient Greece Paper 1. Introduction to Ancient Greece * What is ancient Greece? * How long did Ancient Greece last? * How did Ancient Greece impact western civilization? 2. Archaic period * Duration of the Archaic period * Characteristics of the Archaic period * Impact of the Archaic period on Greece’s culture 3. Classical Greece * Duration of the Classical period * Characteristics of the Classical period * Impact of the Classical period on Greece’s culture 4. Hellenistic Greece * Duration of the Hellenistic period * Characteristics of the Hellenistic period * Impact of the Hellenistic period on Greece’s culture 5. Roman Greece * Transition to Roman Greece * Characteristics of the period under Roman rule * Impact of the Greek culture on Rome 6. Political structure of Ancient Greece 7. Social structure of Ancient Greece 8. War in Ancient Greece 9. Religion in Ancient Greece 10. Impact of Ancient Greece on today

Introduction to Ancient Greece
I chose to write about Ancient Greece because my heritage is from that area of the world and that makes it very interesting to me. The period of time that ancient Greece covers spans for about one thousand years and includes several stages of cultural, economic, and political development. This period was also very important because many consider it the time when western culture was born and developed. However, before ancient Greece developed to the point at which it impacted other regions, it went thru several stages of its own development and maturing.
Archaic period in Ancient Greece
Archaic period in Greece is the time that followed the Greek dark ages. It lasted for about 320 years and is extremely important to ancient Greece because it set the foundation for everything that was to come in the next 700 years.
This period is very important because during this time Greek city states such as Sparta, Athens, and others formed. Basically, it was a period of time during which the structure of many of the Greek city states began developing and taking a shape that we know from books and movies. At this time, the economy, politics, and culture of Greece began to emerge as well in form of city state interrelations, theater, drama, as well as settling of new areas and towns.
Classical period in Ancient Greece
The classical period in ancient Greece lasted for about two hundred years. This period greatly influenced western civilization thru its impact on the Roman Empire and the rest of the world.
The characteristics of this time include huge improvements in political, social, economic, and educational development in the western world as it existed at that time. Much of modern literature, politics, and other social and economic aspects were created during this time by famous thinkers.
In addition to cultural developments, this part of Greek history was also marked by wars against the Persians, wars between Greek cities resulting in fall of Sparta, and the raise of the Macedon’s which eventually resulted in the rise of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was a great leader who during his life conquered much of the known world.
Hellenistic Greece
This period in Greek history lasted for about 200 years and is considered post Alexander the Great. During this time several Greek lands were taken over by Rome and the centers of Greek culture moved from Athens to cities like Alexandria and Antioch. This along with the great conquest of Alexander the Great in prior years unified Greece increasingly and caused significant migration of Greeks into foreign lands occupied by their armies. Furthermore, the wars between Greek cities seemed irrelevant and stopped during this time. However, due to a rise of the Roman Empire and its consequent invasion on Greece, this period is also the end of Greek independence.
Roman Greece
Beginning of Roman take over in Greece marks the end of the ancient Greece. This began about 147 BC. Following the Roman victory in battle, Greek’s capital was changed to Byzantium. During this time there were several uprising which were successfully crushed by the Romans.
Greece became a very important province to Rome as they adopted much if Greek culture and even language. Many Greek thinkers did most of their work in Rome as well. Greece also served as the Empire’s eastern border and jump off point for many military excursions into the eastern lands. The main impact of Rome on Greece was architectural because many of the emperors contributed large and famous buildings to various Greek cities.
Political structure of Ancient Greece
Government in Greece had very different forms and therefore was very diverse. The main debate between the people of Greece about government was whether their sovereignty should be placed with people, politicians, or constitution. Because they could not decide this, all city states had their own form of government so that some were ruled by one person, some by few people, and others by all citizens.
Greek is also known to have been a first democracy. Specifically, city state Athens is known as the birthplace of democracy although other city states later had the same political system. Other systems of political control in city states included monarchies, oligarchies, and even tyranny.
Social structure of Ancient Greece
Social structure in ancient Greece was different in various cities. In this project I will discuss the social structure of Athens because that is one of the most famous ancient Greek cities. In Athens they had four different social classes including the upper class, middle class, freed man, and slaves.
The people who belonged to the upper class possessed the most power and influence in the society. They were often politicians, generals, and other high ranking members of society. One could not become a member of this class because one had to be born into it since the high class status was inherited. The people belonging to this class were seen as people of good civil character, well educated, with artistic taste and rich.
The middle class in Athens were free man who moved to Athens to earn their livelihood. Since they were not born in the city, they did not have equal rights to the upper class but as they were free, they also had more rights than the slaves or lower class. Typically they were traders, craftsmen, and had other similar professional jobs.
The lower class consisted of people who were once slaves but earned their freedom. These people possessed only very few privileges and could never advance in the society regardless how much money they earned. They were barley a step above the slaves.
The last class in ancient Greece society was the slaves. They had no rights and were treated as property. Majority of the slaves were not Greek and they could buy their freedom if they produced a certain amount of money.
War in Ancient Greece
In the beginning of the Greek city states, warfare was very limited because none of the states could afford heavy losses. Mostly it was done thru set piece battles and on a seasonal basis. At tha time, vast majority of the city states did not have professional soldiers but seasonally used its citizens to fight. One of the exceptions was the city state of Sparta in which every man was raised to be a soldier starting age 7.
Much of this change with the start of the Greco Persian wars. Persia was a growing empire at that time which had huge armies. No single city state in Greece could stand up to them which caused them all to unite against a common enemy. This formed many alliances and some of the fought between each other. However, the large scale of warfare that resulted out of alliance forming and Persian threat developed the tactics, weapons, and general approach to war in ancient Greece.
Eventually, a person named Phillip was able to bring all of Greece under his own rule and at that point strengthen the warfare training, tactics, and weapon production to a very high standard. His son alexander the Great, would later capture much of the known world using this same approach.
Religion in Ancient Greece
Greece had a very diverse approach to religion by having various cults who believed in different gods. Some of the major Olympian gods and goddesses include Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares, Athena and others. These practices extended beyond Greece to many of the neighboring countries and islands.
The Greeks also believed in an underworld which was ruled by a god and where the dead went. This underworld was also a part of the very extensive Greek mythology. Greek religion had an extensive mythology. It consisted largely of stories of the gods and of how they affected humans on Earth. Myths often revolved around heroes and their actions, such as Heracles and his twelve labors, Odysseus and his voyage home, Jason and the quest for the Golden Fleece and Theseus and the Minotaur. These mythological stories were often used in today’s time as background for many great movies.
Impact of Ancient Greece on today
Greek philosophy impacted today’s world in many ways. They set the groundwork for modern mathematics, philosophy, architecture, physics, and many other areas such as sports. The Olympic Games started in ancient Greece. The participants were the city-states of Ancient Greece and their colonies. The Olympic Games were held every 4 years in honor of Zeus, the king god. They also were the first to introduce democracy. Many say that without ancient Greece, there would be no western civilization as we know it today.
Their contribution to education was also enormous. The Greeks were the first civilization to use an alphabet. The Alphabet was developed after the Dark Age when the Greeks stopped using their previous written language. The Greek alphabet had 24 letters. The first library in the world, the library of Alexandria was actually built in Egypt, however Egypt was pretty much Greeks because after Egypt submitted to Alexander’s rule the Macedonians started spreading the Greek way of life to all of the lands he conquered including Egypt.

Annotated bibliography
Berens, E.M The Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome. New York: Maynard, Merril, & Co., 1880
Camp, John M. Archaeology of Athens, The. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. Illus. Steele Savage. Boston: Little, Brown and, 1942.
Kagan, Donald. Peloponnesian War, The. New York: Viking, 2003.
Schwab, Gustav. Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece. New York: Pantheon, 2001.
The Cost of the Parthenon http://www.swan.ac.uk/classics/staff/dg/www/parthcost.htm
Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014.