Ancient Greece
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Ancient Greece was a large area where people talked in Greek. It was much bigger than the Greece we know today.
[edit] Early history
In the 8th century BC the Greeks learned how to read and write. They learned about the alphabet from another ancient people, the Phoenicians. There was not one country but many little countries called "city states".
The number of Greeks grew and soon they could not grow enough food for all the people. When this happened, a city would send people off to start a new city. Because the terrain was rough, most travel was by the sea. For this reason, many new cities were established along the coastline. First new cities were started in Anatolia and then in the Black sea, in Cyprus, in southern Italy and in Sicily, by the sea in what today is Libya and Albania. They even started a city, Naucratis, on the river Nile in Egypt. The cities of today, Syracuse, Naples, Marseilles, and Istanbul started as the Greek cities Syracusa, Neapolis, Massilia and Byzantium.
By the 6th century some cities became much more important than the others. They were Corinth, Thebes, Sparta, and Athens.
The Spartans were very good soldiers. They defeated the people who lived near them and those people had to farm the land for the Spartans. These people called helots had to give the Spartans part of the food they grew and so the Spartans didn't have to work. Instead, they learned how to be better soldiers. There were not many Spartans but there were many helots. What if the helots rebel? thought the Spartans. They were afraid of that. To stop the helots rebelling they sometimes did bad things to the helots. The Spartans wanted the helots to be afraid of them so that the helots would not rebel and fight to be free. The Spartans had two kings who led them in war. They were also ruled by a group of old men called the Gerousia.
Athens became a democracy in 510 BC. The men came to a place in the center of the city and decided what to do. It was the first place in the world where the people decided what their country should do. They would talk and then vote on what to do. But the women didn't vote. They didn't have helots like Sparta but they had slaves. These slaves were owned by their master and could be sold to someone else. The Athenian slaves were less free than the Spartan helots but the Athenians were not afraid of their slaves so they were nicer to their slaves. Every year, they elected 8 generals who led them in war.
[edit] Greco-Persian Wars
In 499 BC, the Greek cities in Anatolia rebelled. The didn't want Persia to rule them anymore. Athens sent 20 ships to fight the Persians on the sea. The Greeks in Anatolia were defeated. The Persian King, Darius decided to punish Athens. He sent soldiers and ships to fight Athens. Athens asked for help from Sparta. Sparta wanted to help but couldn't. Athens sent her soldiers against the Persian soldiers and at the Battle of Marathon (in 490 BC) they defeated the Persians. Then the help from Sparta came.
Xerxes was the son of Darius. He wanted to punish Athens because Athens had defeated his father at Marathon. In 480 BC he went to Greece with a big army with many soldiers and a big fleet with many ships. When Sparta heard this they wanted to send an army against the Persians but couldn't. The didn't want to be late again so they sent one of their two kings and 300 soldiers. They went to Thermopylai where there were hills near the sea. The hills were almost mountains so it was difficult for a big army to go past. The way through was very narrow. The Spartans were joined by soldiers from the Greek cities who lived near Thermopylai. However it was a very small Greek army that fought the Persians. Because of the hills the Persians could only send a small number of soldiers against the Greeks and the Greeks won. Then the Persians sent soldiers through the hills. When the Spartan king heard this he sent all the Greeks away but he and his 300 Spartans stayed. The 300 Spartans fought the big army of Persia and they all died.
After Thermopylai many Greeks wanted to go south to the Peloponnese. Because of the sea the way into the Peloponnese is very narrow. Many wanted to fight the Persians where it is very narrow, by the city of Corinth. Athens was north of Corinth and she had many ships. Athens' leader Themistocles wanted to fight the Persians by the island of Salamis. Xerxes decided to send his fleet against the Greek fleet before the Greek ships could go to the Peloponnese and the Greek fleet defeated the Persians. Xerxes then went home with many of his soldiers but a Persian army stayed in Greece. This army was defeated at the Battle of Platea in 479 BC.
[edit] Athens against Sparta
After the Persians were defeated at Platea, the Spartans did very little. However sent her ships across the sea to help Greek cities in Anatolia fight for their freedom. Athens asked the Greek cities on the islands in the Aegean and in Anatolia to join her. These cities agreed because they were afraid of Persia. These cities formed the Delian League and Athens was their leader. Many of the cities had to pay Athens money. Athens used the money to build many ships. Sparta was still strong on land, but Athens was stronger on the sea. Several times there was war between Athens and Sparta. Then Athens decided to send many ships to Sicilly to fight against the city Syracuse. Sparta sent help to Syracuse, and Athens was defeated. None of the Athenian ships came back. Now Sparta decided to build ships to fight Athens. It took a long time for Sparta to defeat Athens but then at the Battle of Aegospotami the Spartans destroyed most of Athens's ships.