Ancient Greece History

Do you want to step into a world where gods command the skies, heroes defy the odds, and legends live forever? Ever wondered how the great Zeus claimed his throne or why Achilles was inexorable? It all begins here.

The flowering of Greek civilization was further made possible by an increase of trade between the cities and with other civilizations. Trade became a major occupation on account of the scarcity of agricultural land in the largely mountainous regions of the Balkan peninsula. The polis of Athens, in particular, assumed economic dominance in the Aegean in from the sixth century BC. The consequent increase in wealth, resources, and population made a cultural renaissance possible.

Greek myths and legends have inspired men and women around the world for hundreds of years. The stories of Apollo, Perseus, Achilles, and others have sustained the imaginations of old and young alike, even into the present. In fact, characters of Greek myth and legend have found their way into mainstream culture in the form of popular television and film characters. Greek mythology was so influential that even formed the basis of Roman myth. Here, you will be exposed to the exciting tales of gods and heroes that formed the canon of the ancient Greek religion.

Among all the early Iron Age people from the Near East who inherited the geopolitical vacuum of power left by the Sea Peoples invasions, the Phrygians are perhaps one of the most misunderstood. They built a powerful and wealthy kingdom, but were overshadowed by their more powerful and wealthier neighbors, the Lydians.

Of all the empires and kingdoms in the ancient world, few could compare with the Lydians in terms of wealth and opulence. From the early seventh century BCE until the middle of the sixth century BCE, the Lydians played an important role in the history of the eastern Mediterranean region as they took on the role of middleman between the empires of the Near East and the emerging Hellenic civilization in Greece.

¿Desea explorar la enérgica y asombrosa historia de la antigua Grecia? Este libro de historia le permitirá conocer a las brillantes personas, las asombrosas guerras y el encantador legado de los antiguos griegos, desde la época arcaica hasta el período helenístico. Los griegos nos proporcionaron los conceptos fundamentales de la geometría, los primeros modelos astronómicos, los inicios de la medicina moderna y nuestra comprensión de la democracia. Los antiguos griegos eran una potencia de todo lo nuevo.

From an acclaimed classicist comes a witty, unusual, and fascinating "biography" of Homer's fictional Bronze Age hero, Odysseus. In this entertaining book, Charles Beye fills out the story of this extraordinary figure while at the same time portraying Odysseus' evolution through the course of a strange and adventuresome life, at times so remote, at times so immediate in the contemporary perspective.

Modern perceptions of Classical Greece are almost invariably based on Athens and Sparta, but there are perhaps few areas as consistently undervalued as the island of Rhodes. Although solidly part of the Greek world for as long as there has been one, Rhodes, located just off the coast of Asia Minor, was also from its earliest times a port opening to the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean, and Rhodes was involved in every significant moment in ancient Greek history.

There are few mythological characters that require less of an introduction than Hercules. His "labours" are known and have been reimagined by cultures far beyond their Greek beginnings, and he continues to influence modern culture in more ways than any other ancient Greek hero.

Che posto occupavano gli animali nell'antichità? Come noi oggi, anche i Greci e i Romani avevano a che fare con cani, cavalli, galline; avevano allevamenti, vivari, acquari, e adottavano pratiche zootecniche. Amavano i loro animali da affezione, mentre ne uccidevano altri e li mangiavano (magari dopo averli sacrificati in onore di una divinità). Conoscevano e usavano animali selvatici o feroci, o esotici come elefanti e pappagalli.

In virtually all fields of human endeavor, ancient Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession.

One of the masterpieces of classical literature, the "Histories" describes how a small and quarrelsome band of Greek city states united to repel the might of the Persian empire. But while this epic struggle forms the core of his work, Herodotus' natural curiosity frequently gives rise to colorful digressions - a description of the natural wonders of Egypt; an account of European lake-dwellers; and far-fetched accounts of dog-headed men and gold-digging ants. With its kaleidoscopic blend of fact and legend, the "Histories" offers a compelling Greek view of the world of the fifth century BC.

Although a simulacrum of the historic literary pieces of Homer and Hesiod, this eBook gives a crisp yet fulfilling account of the Titans, the Olympian gods, their affairs, feuds and rivalries; it provides a through account of the Trojan war and heroes such as Achilles, Hercules and Odysseus. It also includes bonus chapters divulging some enthralling secrets that are less known about the characters of the Greek Mythology.

Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. Leaders of the 20th century hoped to rival Napoleon’s accomplishments, while Napoleon aimed to emulate the accomplishments of Julius Caesar. But Caesar himself found inspiration in Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE), the Macedonian king who managed to stretch an empire from Greece to the Himalayas in Asia by the age of 30.

Desde aproximadamente el siglo IX hasta el siglo V antes de Cristo, la población de Grecia creció sin precedentes, expandiéndose de aproximadamente 800.000 a 13 millones. Cerca de un cuarto de millón de estos vivían en Atenas. El tamaño promedio de los hogares urbanos durante este período creció considerablemente, un hecho que sugiere que los alimentos estuvieron repentinamente disponibles en excesos suficientes para mantener a las familias más grandes sanas y vivas mucho más eficazmente que solo un milenio antes.

The Acropolis, which literally means "a city on the heights", is a citadel whose currently surviving structures were mostly built during the 5th century BCE in honor of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. It functioned as a sacred precinct that contained the city's most important religious and municipal structures, many of which have remained relatively intact for over 2,000 years.

How scapegoating and hysteria doomed the world's first democracy. From the chaos of a sea-battle to the fury of a lynch mob, from personal bravery to political machinations, The Day Democracy Died tells in vivid detail the tragic story of the Arginusae trials and the fall of Athens: a cautionary tale of democracy's demons which is as relevant in the age of instant news and mass media as in the volatile city-states of ancient Greece.

There have been no shortage of great warrior societies in history, including the Romans, Mongols, Macedonians, and Vikings, and the list goes on. Yet one humble city in particular, nestled in a valley near the Eurotas River in the Greek region of the Peloponnese and once ridiculed as little more than a cluster of villages inhabited by uncouth shepherds, produced the most famous warrior elite the world has ever known.

"On Youth and Old Age" is one of the short treatises that make up Aristotle's Parva Naturalia. He compares the temperament of youth with that of old age, and considers middle age the best of all conditions.

The reasons for so little being known about Thebes and its contributions to ancient Greek civilization are complex, but the fact that it was totally destroyed by Alexander the Great is certainly one. Unlike Athens and Sparta, there are no magnificent structures still extant - indeed, the scale of the destruction meted out to Thebes was so great, that very few artifacts of any kind have been discovered that enable a full picture of life in the city. With the very notable exception of Pindar, Thebes did not produce significant numbers of philosophers or playwrights.