The Cyclades (southeast of mainland Greece) are known to have been inhabited from c.7500 BC. A Cycladic civilisation linked by seagoing commerce emerged c.3000 BC. By c.2000 BC many of the islands were occupied by the Minoans. When the Minoan civilisation declined after c.1450 BC, the centre of power in the ancient Aegean moved to the Mycenaean civilisation in Southern Greece (=Peloponnese). During the twelfth century BC the Mycenaean civilisation was overrun by Dorians, whose origins are uncertain. They initially settled in the Peloponnese but soon spread over much of mainland Greece.
From c.1050-c.950 BC Greeks migrated to the Aegean Islands and Asia Minor’s west coast. In the late eighth century BC Greek colonists founded settlements such as Croton and Sybaris in mainland southern Italy, and Syracuse in Sicily: the whole area eventually became known as Magna Graecia.
By c.800 BC Greece had been divided into a number of city-states, the most important being Argos, Athens, Corinth, Elis, Sparta and Thebes. Most of the cities abolished monarchic rule in favour of an aristocratic form of government, usually headed by an archon (chief magistrate). Aristocrats were usually disliked because of their inherited privileges and some city-states came to be ruled by tyrants after Cypselus (r.c.657-c.625 BC) started the practice at Corinth.
The seafaring city-state of Athens in Central Greece was occupied for much of the sixth century BC with internal conflicts that prompted constitutional reforms that led her to democracy. Sparta in the Peloponnese was a very different type of city-state. The Spartans were descended from the Dorian invaders and used the helots, the original inhabitants of Laconia (=Lacedaemonia), as their slaves. By the late sixth century BC Sparta had become the leading power in the Peloponnese.
In 498 BC Athens supported the rebellion in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor against their Persian overlords. Darius-I (c.64; r.522-486 BC) spent five years suppressing this Ionian revolt (499-494 BC) and then decided to punish Athens for their involvement. In 490 BC the Athenians beat off an attempted Persian landing at Marathon. Eleven years later after their defeats in battles at Salamis (480 BC) and Plataea (479 BC) the Persians withdrew completely.
In 478 BC Athens founded the Delian League, so called because its treasury was kept on the island of Delos. Ostensibly, the purpose of the alliance was to create a naval force to liberate city-states still occupied by the Persians and to protect Greece against another Persian attack. By the middle of the century, the Persians had been driven from the Aegean and conceded a vast range of territories to Athens. Over the course of the century Athens greatly increased its power, reducing its former independent allies to subject states paying tribute to the Athenian Empire (454-404 BC).
Sparta’s concern with the growth of Athenian power brought the Peloponnesian wars (460*404 BC) that ended in a Spartan victory. Sparta then became an imperial power, but this was short-lived because Thebes inflicted a shattering defeat on the Spartan army at Leuctra in 371 BC. In a surprise about turn Athens allied with Sparta and their combined forces met the Theban army at Mantinea in 362 BC. Thebes won the battle but Theban power crumbled thereafter.
While the Greeks were engineering their own decline, Macedonia was gathering strength in the north. In 338 BC Philip II (46; r.359-336 BC) marched into Greece and defeated an army of Athenians and Thebans at Chaeronea. The following year Philip persuaded all the city-states to swear allegiance to Macedonia by promising to campaign against Persia.
In 334 BC Philip’s son Alexander III the Great (32; r.336-323 BC) crossed the Bosporus and defeated the Persians in a few bloody battles. He liberated the Greek cities of Asia Minor and conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt. He went on to extend his conquests eastwards, taking Bactria and the Punjab. He died of a fever in Babylon.
His generals then competed for his empire: Ptolemy-I (c.84; r.305-283 BC) founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty (305-30 BC) to rule in Egypt; Seleucus-I (c.77; r.305-281 BC) founded the Seleucid Dynasty (312-63 BC) to rule over Syria and Persia; and Antigonus-I c.81; r.306-301 BC) founded the Antigonid Dynasty (306-168 BC) to rule over Asia Minor.
Athens and her allies revolted against Macedonia upon hearing that Alexander had died, but were defeated within a year in the Lamian War (323-322 BC). To defend their independence the city-states formed two leagues: the Aetolian League in Central Greece and the Achaean League in the Peloponnese. Athens and Sparta joined neither.
While Alexander had been capturing his empire in the East, the Romans had been expanding theirs in the West. After a number of inconclusive clashes, Macedonia was defeated in 148 BC at Pydna. The Achaean League was defeated and dissolved in 146 BC. In 88 BC Greece joined with Mithridates VI of Pontus (c.69; r.c.120-63 BC) in an ill-fated rebellion against the Romans. Athens was captured and then punished severely to ensure that Greece would remain docile during later wars.
In AD 250 Greece was invaded by the Goths, the first of a succession of invaders. In 330 the Roman emperor Constantine-I the Great (57; r.306-337), a Christian convert, moved his capital from Rome to Byzantium, a city strategically placed between Europe and Asia on the western shore of the Bosporus, which he renamed Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). In the ensuing centuries Byzantine Greece faced continued pressure from the Persians and the Arabs but managed to retain its control over the region.
The stated mission of Byzantine Empire’s fellow Christians in the West – the Frankish Crusaders – was to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. The first three Crusades passed by without affecting the area, but the leaders of the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) struck a deal with Venice and Byzantium was sacked. Much of the Byzantine Empire was partitioned into fiefdoms ruled by ‘Latin’ princes. The Venetians also secured a foothold in Greece.
In 1261 The Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII (58, r.1259-1282) managed to reclaim Constantinople. But the city soon faced a greater threat from the East. In 1453 the city fell to the Ottoman Turks. Eventually, with the exception of the Ionian Islands which remained under Venetian control, Greece became part of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922).
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