Changes And Continuities In Ancient Greece

Emerging from the Dark Age, a period of poverty and political instability, Greece’s economic growth and encounters with the Phoenicians and Persians in the Archaic Age set the stage for the period of great cultural achievement known as the Classical Age. Urban life, literacy, and maritime trade disappeared as both food production and population declined, causing many Greeks to migrate to Ionia. Between 750 and 650 B.C.E., many economic and cultural innovations were introduced to the Greeks from their contacts with Middle Eastern peoples, the most valuable of which was the Greek adoption of the Phoenician alphabet. A new form of social and political life, the polis was a self- 17 governing city-state, which varied in size but contained the same
Following the rule of the tyrant Peisistratus, Cleisthenes built on Solon’s work, establishing new institutions and ensuring every male citizen had a permanent voice in government. Linguistically linked to Classical Age Greece, Macedon was a monarchy in which kings were obliged to wage war continuously to retain the support of the Macedonian army. King Philip shrewdly linked Greek civilization with Macedonian might when he announced that he intended to conquer the Persian Empire as “revenge” for the Persian War, but it was his son Alexander who actually conquered not only the Persian Empire but beyond – as far as India. As he conquered, Alexander established cities at key locations, which drew thousands of Greek migrants who became the cities’ elites. Although Alexander tried to adapt Persian political structures to consolidate and unite his empire, resistance from his army ensured that at his death, without an adult heir, Alexander’s empire would eventually disintegrate. Fighting among themselves, Alexander’s generals eventually created a number of kingdoms, run by all-Greek administrations in which the kings were worshiped as gods but relied on military success, public projects, and patronage to ensure the support of their armies and
The people of the Hellenistic cities shared a common identity based on a common language, and the cities continued Greek traditions of learning, art, and architecture. They even continued the tradition of active public life in an age of absolute monarchical power, as Hellenistic kings tended to allow considerable freedom in local government. Those governments were dominated by the wealthy citizens, who spent lavishly to decorate and enhance their cities, which were becoming more diverse as the Greek concept of exclusive city-citizenship yielded to the reality of common "subjectship" to the king. Women in the Hellenistic world had more opportunities than women in the Classical Age. Female infanticide was reduced, royal women often wielded considerable power, and overall female education improved, although women remained under the supervision of men with fewer rights and opportunities. The Hellenistic era saw striking innovations in literature, philosophy, and science. During the Hellenistic Age, Rome expanded from a city-state into a vast and powerful empire, attempting to incorporate those it conquered into its republican political structure. But trying to govern ever-growing territories with the institutions of a city-state undermined the Roman