GREECE

(Gr. Hellas), officially known as the Hellenic Republic (Gr. Ellinikí Dimokratía), republic, SE Europe, occupying the southernmost part of the Balkan Peninsula and numerous islands. It is bordered on the NW by Albania, on the N by the Republic of Macedonia (also known internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and Bulgaria, on the NE by Turkey, on the E by the Aegean Sea, on the S by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the W by the Ionian Sea. The total area is 131,957 sq km (50,949 sq mi), of which about one-fifth is composed of islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas.

The mainland portion of Greece comprises the regions of Thrace and Macedonia in the N; Epirus, Thessaly (Thessalía), and Central Greece in the central section; and, in the S, the Peloponnesus (Pelopónnisos), a peninsula, which is connected to the rest of the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. The Corinth Canal, completed in 1893, passes through the Isthmus of Corinth, making an artificial island of the Peloponnesus. The remainder of Greece consists of islands, which include Euboea (Évvoia); Crete (Kríti); the Northern Sporades; the Cyclades, Dodecanese, and Ionian islands; and Ikaría (Icaria), Khíos (Chios), Límnos (Lemnos), Lésvos (Lesbos), Sámos (Samos), Samothráki (Samothrace), and Thásos. See separate articles on most of these islands.

The coastal waters of Greece are shallow and penetrate far inland. The Corinthian and Saronic gulfs, separated by the Isthmus of Corinth, divide the Peloponnesus from central and N Greece. The country, despite its indented coasts, has few good harbors. The Saronic Gulf has the best anchorages, notably in the fine natural harbor of Piraiévs (Piraeus), which is the port of Athens. Kérkira (Corfu), one of the Ionian Islands, also has an excellent harbor.

Greece was the center of one of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations and has a recorded history that dates from 4000 bc. The descriptive material that follows is pertinent to modern Greece. The History section covers Greece from prehistoric times (before 4000 bc), Ancient Greece (c. 1500–323 bc), the Hellenistic period (323–146 bc), Roman and Byzantine period (146 bc–1453 ad), Ottoman domination (1453–1830), and Modern Greece (1830– ).

LAND AND RESOURCES

Greece is famous for its natural beauty. The land is mountainous and rugged and, as the ancient geographer Strabo wrote, “the sea presses in upon the country with a thousand arms.” In natural resources, however, the country is relatively poor.

Although a small country, Greece has a very diverse topography. The most important physiographic divisions of the country are the central mountains; the damp, mountainous region in the W; the dry, sunny plains and lower mountain ranges in E Thessaly, Macedonia, and Thrace; Central Greece, the SE finger of the mainland that cradled the city-states of Greece; the mountainous region of the Peloponnesus; and the islands, most of which are in the Aegean.

The central mountain area, the Pindus Mts., which extends in a N to S direction, is one of the most rugged, isolated, and sparsely populated parts of the country. Mt. Olympus (2917 m/9570 ft), the highest peak of Greece, was considered in ancient times to be the home of the gods. The W slopes, which extend through Epirus down to the Ionian Sea, are somewhat lower and more hospitable. The SE extremity of Central Greece, known as Attica, is broken into many isolated valleys and plains by mountain ridges. The most famous part of Greece, the Athenian plain, is in Attica. The largest plain of the E coastal area, however, is in Boeotia, to the N of Attica. Thessaly, a plain ringed by mountains, is one of the more fertile parts of the country. Macedonia has the largest plains in Greece. Thrace, to the E of Macedonia, has a varied topography consisting of mountains, valleys, and several coastal plains. The Peloponnesus is mountainous, but to a lesser degree than Central Greece, and is shaped somewhat like a giant hand with impassable mountain ridges extending like fingers into the sea. Between the mountain ridges are narrow valleys, which are isolated from one another, but which open onto the sea. The W section of the Peloponnesus is less mountainous than the E section. The islands of the Aegean Sea are generally high, rugged, stony, and dry, and consequently their contribution to the economic life of the country is limited. They are important, however, because of their great beauty, historical importance, and strategic military value.

Climate.

The climate of Greece is similar to that of other Mediterranean countries. In the lowlands the summers are hot and dry, with clear, cloudless skies, and the winters are rainy. The mountain areas are much cooler, with considerable rain in the summer months. Frost and snow are rare in the lowlands, but the mountains are covered with snow in the winter. The rainfall varies greatly from region to region. In Thessaly less than 38 mm (1.5 in) of rain falls in some years, whereas parts of the W coast receive about 1270 mm (about 50 in). The mean annual temperature in Athens is about 17° C (about 63° F); the extremes range from a normal low temperature of –0.6° C (31° F) in January to a normal high of 37.2° C (99° F) in July.

Natural Resources.

Greece is poorly endowed with natural resources of economic value. Less than one-third of the land is arable; the rest consists mostly of barren mountains. The forests, probably abundant in ancient times, have to a great extent been depleted. Greece lacks coal, and its lignite is of low quality. The country does have significant petroleum and natural gas deposits, however. They are located under the Aegean, near the island of Thásos. The deposits of bauxite and iron ore are rich in metal content, but the reserves of other commercially important minerals, such as chromium, nickel, copper, uranium, and magnesium, are relatively small. Although the waters surrounding the country are inhabited by a large variety of fish, only a relatively few species are plentiful.

Soils.

The soil of Greece is mostly very rocky and very dry, but the country is interspersed with small valleys where the soils are of the rich Mediterranean terra rosa, or red earth, variety.

Plants and Animals.

Greece has a great diversity of vegetation. From sea level to an elevation of about 460 m (about 1500 ft), oranges, olives, dates, pomegranates, figs, cotton, and tobacco are grown. From about 120 to 460 m (about 400 to 1500 ft) deciduous and evergreen forests are found, where oak, black pine, chestnut, beech, and sumac grow. Tulips, hyacinths, and laurel are also characteristic of the area. Firs and such wild flowers as anemone and cyclamen are found above about 1220 m (about 4000 ft), and mosses and lichens predominate above about 1525 m (about 5000 ft).

Wildlife includes boar, European black bear, lynx, jackal, chamois, deer, fox, badger, and weasel. Among the birds are the hawk, pelican, egret, pheasant, partridge, nightingale, turtledove, and stork.

POPULATION

Much of Greece remains rural, and famous ancient cities such as Árgos, Corinth, and Sparta are small towns today. The population of the country is about 98% Greek. The remainder consists of Macedonian Slavs, Turks, Albanians, Armenians, Bulgarians, and Vlachs. Many of the Turks live in Thrace and on some of the Dodecanese islands.

Population Characteristics.

The population of Greece (1991) was 10,259,000, an increase of about 5.4% over 1981. In 2001 the population was 10,964,020. The overall population density was about 83 persons per sq km (about 215 per sq mi). The population of Greece is very large in relation to the size and economic capacity of the country, and much poverty exists. Both the birth rate (formerly one of the highest in Europe) and the death rate have declined in recent years, and the annual rate of population growth between 1990 and 1999 was 0.4%. Some 60% of the population lives in urban areas, especially around Athens, around Thessaloníki (Salonika) in Macedonia, in the W Peloponnesus, and on the islands. Kérkira, Zákinthos (Zante), and Khíos are among the most densely populated islands.

Political Divisions.

Under a reorganization plan introduced in 1987, Greece is divided for administrative purposes into 13 regions (diamerismata), which are subdivided into departments (nomoi). The 13 regions, with their populations according to the 1991 census, are Northern Aegean (198,241), Southern Aegean (257,522), Attica (3,522,769), Crete (536,980), Epirus (339,210), Central Greece (578,876), Western Greece (702,027), Ionian Islands (191,003), Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (570,261), Central Macedonia (1,737,623), Western Macedonia (292,751), Peloponnesus (605,663), and Thessaly (731,230). The 1975 constitution recognizes Mt. Áthos (pop., 1991, 1536) as an autonomous district.

Municipalities, or demes (cities that have more than 100,000 inhabitants), are administered by a mayor and a city council, and communities that have 300 to 10,000 inhabitants by a president and a community council.

Principal Cities.

The largest and most important city is Athens, the capital, with a population (2001, greater city) of 3,192,606. Piraiévs, seaport of Athens, is the largest port of Greece. Thessaloníki, with a population (1991) of 377,951, is an important textile center, and Pátrai, on the N part of the Peloponnesus, is a major seaport, with 155,180 inhabitants. Other sizable cities include Lárisa (113,426), Iráklion (117,167), and Vólos (76,463). See separate articles on each city mentioned above.

Language.

The great majority of the people speak Modern Greek (see Greek Language). The vernacular Modern Greek and language of popular literature is Demotike, as opposed to Katharevousa, a more formal, or purist, form of Modern Greek that is closer to Ancient Greek. Demotike became the official language of Greece by an act of Parliament in 1976. Demotike is used by the government, virtually all the newspapers, and by the majority of university professors. A great difference exists between the language used by the educated classes and that used by the majority of the population. Both English and French are also widely spoken.

Religion.

More than 95% of the people are followers of the Orthodox Church of Greece. The others include Muslims, Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Monophysites (Armenians).

Education.

Education is free and compulsory in Greece for all children between the ages of 6 and 15. In 1928 some 40% of the people aged 15 or more years were illiterate. By the early 1990s the illiteracy rate had declined to less than 7%.

Elementary and secondary schools.

All villages and towns have primary schools, and many have high schools. In the early 1990s some 7630 primary schools had a combined annual enrollment of about 745,700 pupils. The approximately 3680 secondary, vocational, and teacher-training schools were attended by about 890,900 students.

Universities and colleges.

Greece has ten universities: the National and Capodistrian University of Athens (1837); the Aristotelian University of Thessaloníki (1925); the National Technical University of Athens (1836); the University of Macedonia (1957), in Thessaloníki; the Demokritos University of Thrace (1973), in Komotiní; the University of Ioánnina (1964); the University of Pátrai (1964); the University of Crete (1973); the Technical University of Crete (1977); and the University of the Aegean (1984), with branches in Athens, Khíos, Mitilíni, and Sámos. Other institutions of higher education include the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1881); the Athens University of Economics and Business (1920); the Athens School of Fine Art (1836); the British School at Athens (1886); and the French Archaeological School of Athens (1846). In the early 1990s more than 187,000 students were enrolled in higher education.

Culture.

The culture of ancient Greece had a major influence on the development of Western civilization. For information on Greek culture, see Drama and Dramatic Arts; Greek Art and Architecture; Greek Literature; Greek Music; Greek Philosophy; Greek Religion and Mythology; Olympian Games.

Libraries and Museums.

Many noteworthy museums are devoted to Greek antiquities and archaeology. These include the National Archaeological Museum (1874), the Byzantine Museum (1914), the Acropolis Museum (1878), and the Nicholas P. Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art (1986), all of which are in Athens. The Archaeological Museum at Olympia contains the world’s largest collection of Greek Geometric and Archaic bronzes. The Archaeological Museum in Iráklion (Candia; 1904) on Crete has an outstanding collection of Minoan and early Greek antiquities. The Archaeological Museum in Pílos features a collection of Mycenaean pottery and Hellenistic glass. Noted museums in Athens featuring displays of more recent art include the National Art Gallery and Alexander Soutzos Museum (1900), and the Benaki Museum (1930). The National Library of Greece (1828), also in Athens, has approximately 2 million volumes.

ECONOMY

In the early 1990s the gross national product of Greece averaged $7290 per capita. Agriculture plays an important role in the Greek economy. Infant industries established in the period after World War I were, to a large extent, destroyed during World War II and the subsequent civil war; by 1970, however, the contribution of manufacturing to the national output had surpassed that of agriculture for the first time. Industry expanded at an annual rate of 5% during the 1970s but has stagnated subsequently. Two major sources of income for Greece are shipping and tourism. The production of petroleum from fields in the N Aegean Sea began to aid the economy in the early 1980s.

Greece became a full member of the European Community in 1981 and of its successor, the European Union (EU) in 1993. The estimated national budget in the early 1990s included approximately $28.3 billion in revenue and $37.6 billion in expenditure.

Labor.

Trade unions are organized locally on a craft basis. In each town or industrial region is a labor center, to which the local unions belong, and all the members of the same craft belong to national federations. Most of the labor centers and federations are under the aegis of the Greek General Confederation of Labor, which has some 700,000 members.

Agriculture.

Nearly one-fourth of the Greek labor force is engaged in farming, and agriculture constitutes about 16% of the gross domestic product. Productivity, however, is not adequate for the heavy burden placed on the agricultural sector of the economy. Farms are small, and consequently it is difficult to use mechanized equipment efficiently. In addition, yields are low because of the dryness and erosion of the soil. Tobacco is a leading cash crop and accounts for about 5% of annual export income. The approximate yearly output of major crops (in metric tons) in the early 1990s was tobacco, 182,000; wheat, 2.8 million; tomatoes, 1.7 million; oranges, 872,000; corn, 2 million; sugar beets, 3.2 million; grapes, 1.3 million; olives, 1.7 million; potatoes, 965,000; and cotton lint, 275,000. Livestock included some 9.7 million sheep, 5.8 million goats, 616,000 head of cattle, 27 million poultry, and 1.2 million pigs.

Forestry and Fishing.

The Greek government owns about two-thirds of the forestland and has taken steps to replace the trees that were destroyed during World War II. About 2.3 million cu m (about 81 million cu ft) of roundwood were cut annually in the early 1990s.

Fishing is limited. In the early 1990s the annual catch amounted to about 149,000 metric tons, most of which was consumed within Greece.

Mining.

Although mining is of limited importance to the Greek economy, numerous minerals are exploited. The approximate annual output of minerals (in metric tons) in the early 1990s included lignite, 51.9 million; bauxite, 2.5 million; and nickel ore, 2.1 million. Petroleum, iron ore, magnesite, marble, salt, chromium, silver, zinc, and lead were also produced.

Manufacturing.

About one-fifth of the labor force is engaged in manufacturing, which contributes 17% of the annual gross domestic product. The leading fabricated items include basic metals and metal products; food, beverages, and tobacco; textiles; clothing and footwear; chemicals; cement; and wine. Athens is the leading manufacturing center.

Energy.

More than 90% of Greece’s electricity is produced in thermal facilities burning lignite, coal, or refined petroleum, and the rest is generated in hydroelectric installations, which are mainly situated on the Akhelóös R. in the Pindus Mts. In the early 1990s Greece had an installed electricity-generating capacity of about 8.9 million kw, and annual production was some 35.8 billion kwh.

Currency and Banking.

The euro is the legal tender of Greece (0.92 euro equals U.S.$1; Sept. 2003). Greece failed to qualify for inclusion in the euro zone when 11 other members of the EU adopted a common currency on Jan. 1, 1999, but joined the system on Jan. 1, 2001. The national currency, the drachma, ceased to be the national currency on Jan. 1, 2002, when the euro became the currency for all transactions; euro notes and coins replaced the circulation of the drachma by the end of February 2002.

The central banking institution is the state-controlled Bank of Greece (founded in 1928), which also issues the currency. The largest commercial bank is the National Bank of Greece, with more than 600 domestic branches. Special financial institutions have been established by the government to provide loans for industrial and agricultural development. Athens has a stock exchange.

Foreign Trade.

Greece generally spends much more each year on imports than it takes in from sales of exports. This imbalance is offset to a certain extent by tourist revenues and by remittances from Greek nationals residing abroad. The country also depends upon foreign loans and investments to close the gap between earnings from exports and payments for imports. In the early 1990s the value of imports amounted to $17.6 billion, and exports earned $6 billion. The chief imports were machinery and transport equipment; petroleum and petroleum products; food and live animals; basic manufactured goods; and chemicals. The main exports were fruit and vegetables; textiles and clothing; beverages and tobacco; petroleum products; and iron and steel. The principal trade partners were Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, and the U.S. The countries of the EU account for about two-thirds of Greece’s yearly total trade.

Tourism.

In the early 1990s about 8.3 million tourists visited Greece annually to see the antiquities and to vacation in the sunny Mediterranean climate. Receipts from tourism amounted to about $2.6 billion a year.

Transportation.

After World War II the transportation system was completely reconstructed and greatly expanded. Greece has about 130,000 km (about 80,800 mi) of roads, of which about 79% are paved. In the early 1990s Greece had about 1,790,900 passenger cars and 817,700 trucks and buses. Almost all of the country’s 2527 km (1570 mi) of operated railroad track is part of the government-run rail system. The Greek-owned merchant fleet, consisting of some 1860 ships with a gross registered tonnage of 22.8 million, is among the largest in the world. The leading Greek seaports are Piraiévs, Pátrai, Thessaloníki, and Elevsís. The Corinth Canal is an important link between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. The national airline is Olympic Airways, which provides domestic and international service. The busiest airports serve Athens, Thessaloníki, and Alexandroúpolis.

Communications.

The government operates radio and television services; private television broadcasting was inaugurated in the 1990s. Toward the end of the decade, Greece had more than 5.5 million main telephone lines, nearly 2.1 million cellular telephone subscribers, 550,000 personal computers, 350,000 Internet users, and 4.9 million televisions. Most of the leading daily newspapers are published in Athens or Thessaloníki. Dailies with large circulations include Apogevmatini, Eleftherotypia, and Ta Nea, all issued in Athens.

GOVERNMENT

In September 1968, the Greek electorate approved a new constitution drawn up by the ruling military junta. The charter retained the hereditary monarchy, declaring Greece to be a “crowned democracy,” but the king was deprived of much of the authority vested in him by the constitution of 1952. On June 1, 1973, the Council of Ministers abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Greece a republic. The junta resigned and civilian government was restored in July 1974; Greek voters declined to reestablish the monarchy in a referendum in December of the same year. On June 11, 1975, a new republican constitution went into effect.

Executive.

Under the 1975 constitution, as amended, the president of Greece is head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. The president, who is elected by parliament to a 5-year term, designates a prime minister from the majority (or strongest) party in parliament and must accept the cabinet the prime minister names; however, under extraordinary circumstances, the president may dismiss the prime minister and cabinet after consultation with the Council of the Republic, an advisory body consisting of present and former major officials. The president may also veto legislation, suspend parliament for up to 30 days, and dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

Legislature.

The national parliament of Greece is a unicameral body of between 200 and 300 members; it had 300 members in the mid-1990s. The legislature is divided into three working sections; the full parliament deals only with the most important matters of state. Parliament may impeach the president or any other government official by a two-thirds vote; the official is then tried by a special panel of judges.

Judiciary.

Ordinary civil and criminal cases are tried in courts of first instance, from which appeals may be made to the courts of appeal and finally to the supreme court. The 1975 constitution established the Special Supreme Tribunal to deal with the highest constitutional issues.

Local Government.

See Population: Political Divisions, above.

Political Parties.

The 1975 constitution of Greece guarantees the right to “freely establish and participate in political parties.” The largest parties in the mid-1990s were the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, known as Pasok; the center-right New Democracy party; the nationalist Political Spring; and the Communist Party of Greece.

Health and Welfare.

Citizens of Greece are guaranteed health benefits and old-age pensions. A state-run system of social insurance covers all wage earners. Health conditions are excellent. In the early 1990s, life expectancy at birth averaged 80 years for women and 75 for men; the infant mortality rate was 8.2 per 1000 live births.

Defense.

Military service, lasting from 19 to 23 months, is compulsory for men. In the early 1990s the army had 113,000 members; the navy, 19,500; and the air force, 26,800.

International Organizations.

In addition to its membership in the EU, Greece is a member of the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the Council of Europe.

HISTORY

The Greek peninsula has been culturally linked with the Aegean Islands and the west coast of Asia Minor since the Neolithic Age. The many natural harbors along the coasts of Greece and the multiplicity of close-lying islands led to the development of a homogeneous, maritime civilization. But cultural homogeneity did not induce political unity. Mountain ranges and deep valleys cut the peninsula into small economic and political units, each little larger than a city with its surrounding territory. For a detailed history of the most famous city-states, see Athens; Corinth; Sparta; Thebes.

Prehistoric Period.

Archaeological evidence indicates that a primitive Mediterranean people, closely akin to the races of northern Africa, inhabited the southern Aegean area as far back as the Neolithic Age, before 4000 bc. The evidence shows a cultural progression from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, which in the area of Greece commenced about 3000 bc. Beginning in the 3d millennium bc the prehistoric Aegean civilization progressed to an extremely high level. The Bronze Age civilization in the Aegean was divided into two main cultures, each of which passed through several phases and subdivisions. One, called Cretan or Minoan (see Minoan Culture), was centered on the island of Crete, only 660 km (400 mi) northwest of Egypt and directly on the sea routes to the ancient countries of the Middle East. The other culture, called Helladic (Mycenaean in its late phase), flourished contemporaneously on mainland Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus. Its greatest centers were at Mycenae, Tiryns (near present Návplion), and Pílos. Cretan culture and trade dominated the Mediterranean until after 1500 bc, when leadership passed to the Mycenaeans.

During the late 3d millennium bc a series of invasions began by tribes from the north who spoke an Indo-European language. Evidence exists that the northerners originally inhabited the basin of the Danube River in southeast Europe. The most prominent of the early invaders, who were to be called the Achaeans, had, in all probability, been forced to migrate by other invaders. They overran southern Greece and established themselves on the Peloponnesus. According to some scholars, a second tribe, the Ionians, settled chiefly in Attica, east-central Greece, and the Cyclades, where they were assimilated to a great degree with the Helladic people. The Aeolians, a third, rather vaguely defined tribe, originally settled in Thessaly.

ANCIENT GREECE

Gradually, in the last period (c. 1500–1200 bc) of Bronze Age Greece, the mainland absorbed the civilization of Crete. By 1400 bc the Achaeans were in possession of the island itself, and soon afterward they became dominant on the mainland, notably in the region around Mycenae. Although this city has given its name to the Achaean ascendancy because of the extensive archaeological investigations of its ruins, other city-kingdoms were of great, if not equal, importance. The Trojan War, described by Homer in the Iliad, began about, or shortly after, 1200 bc and was probably one of a series of wars waged during the 13th and 12th centuries bc. It may have been connected with the last and most important of the invasions from the north, which occurred at a similar time and brought the Iron Age to Greece. The Dorians left their mountainous home in Epirus and pushed their way down to the Peloponnesus and Crete, using iron weapons to conquer or expel the previous inhabitants of those regions. The invading Dorians overthrew the Achaean kings and settled, principally, in the southern and eastern part of the peninsula. Sparta and Corinth became the chief Dorian cities. Many of the Achaeans took refuge in the northern Peloponnesus, a district afterward called Achaea. Others resisted the Dorians bitterly, and after being subjugated were made serfs and called helots. Refugees from the Peloponnesus fled to their kin in Attica and the island of Euboea, but they later migrated, as did the Aeolians, to the coast of Asia Minor.

In the centuries after 1200 bc the increased colonization of the Asia Minor coast, first by refugees from the Dorians and then by the Dorians themselves, made the area a political and cultural part of Greece. Three great confederacies were established by each of the Greek ethnic divisions. The northern portion of the coast of Asia Minor and the island of Lesbos constituted the Aeolian confederacy. The Ionian confederacy occupied the middle district, called Ionia, and the islands of Chios and Samos. A Doric confederacy was established in the south and on the islands of Rhodes and Kos. Several centuries later (750–550 bc) a rapid population increase and a consequent shortage of food, the rise of trade and industry, and other conditions led to another great colonizing movement. Colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of the Black Sea and what is now Marseille, France, and included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The latter region was so overwhelmingly inhabited by Greeks that the area became known as Magna Graecia (Lat., “Greater Greece”).

The Hellenic Period.

After the conclusion of the great migrations in the Aegean, the Greeks developed a proud racial consciousness. They called themselves Hellenes, originally the name, according to Homer, of a small tribe living south of Thessaly. The term Greeks, used by later foreign peoples, was derived from Graecia, the Latin name for a small Hellenic tribe of Epirus, presumably the Hellenes with whom the Romans first had dealings. Out of the mythology that became the basis of an intricate religion, the Hellenes developed a genealogy that traced their ancestry to semidivine heroes.

Although the small Hellenic states maintained their autonomy, they pursued a common course of political development. In the pre-Hellenic period the tribal chiefs of invading tribes became the kings of the territories they conquered. These monarchies were slowly replaced, between 800 and 650 bc, by oligarchies of aristocrats, as the noble families acquired land, the measure of wealth and power. About 650 bc many of the Hellenic oligarchies were themselves overthrown by wealthy commoners or disgruntled aristocrats, called tyrants. The rise of the tyrants was due mainly to economic conditions. Popular discontent under the aristocracies had become a major political factor because of the increasing enslavement of landless peasants; colonization and trade in the 8th and 7th centuries bc hastened the development of a prosperous merchant class, which took advantage of the mounting discontent to demand a share of power with the aristocrats in the city-states.

Age of tyrants.

The age of the Greek tyrants (c. 650–500 bc) was notable for advances made in Hellenic civilization. The title of tyrant connoted that political power had been illegally seized, rather than that it was abused. Generally, the tyrants, such as Periander (c. 665–585 bc) of Corinth, Gelon of Syracuse, and Polycrates (r. about 533–522 bc) of Samos, were wise and popular rulers. Trade and industry flourished. In the wake of political and economic strength came a flowering of Hellenic culture, especially in Ionia, where Greek philosophy began with the speculations of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. The development of cultural pursuits common to all the Hellenic cities was one of the factors that united ancient Greece, despite the political separation of the various states. Another factor was the Greek language, the many dialects of which were readily understandable in any part of the country or any colony. The third factor was the Greek religion, which held the Hellenes together, and the sanctuary of Delphi, with its oracle, became the greatest national shrine. As a corollary to their religion, the Greeks held four national festivals, called games—the Olympian, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemean. The Olympian games were considered so important that many Greeks dated their historical reckoning from the first Olympiad (the 4-year period between sessions at the Olympian games) held in 776 bc. Related to religion, at least in origin, was the Amphictyonic League, an organization of Hellenic tribes that was established for the protection and administration of shrines.

From monarchy to democracy.

Some unification of the city-states took place. Between the 8th and 6th centuries bc, Athens and Sparta became the two dominant cities of Greece. Each of these great states united its weaker neighbors into a league or confederacy under its control. Sparta, a completely militarized and aristocratic state, established its leadership mainly by conquest, and kept its subject states under strict rule. The unification of Attica was, however, carried on by mutual and peaceful agreement under the leadership of Athens, and the inhabitants of smaller cities were given Athenian citizenship. The hereditary kingship of Athens was abolished in 683 bc by the nobles, known as the Eupatridae, who ruled Athens until the mid-6th century bc. The Eupatridae retained complete authority by their supreme power to dispense justice, often in an arbitrary fashion. In 621 bc the statesman Draco (fl. 650–621 bc) codified and published the Athenian law, thereby limiting the judiciary power of the nobles. A second major blow to the hereditary power of the Eupatridae was the code of the Athenian statesman and legislator Solon in 594 bc, which further reformed the Draconian code and gave citizenship to the lower classes. During the wise and enlightened rule (560–527 bc) of the tyrant Pisistratus, the forms of government began to take on elements of democracy. Hippias and Hipparchus (555–514 bc), sons of Pisistratus, inherited their father’s power, but they were considerably more despotic. Hippias, who survived Hipparchus, was expelled by a popular uprising in 510 bc. In the resulting political strife, the supporters of democracy, under the great statesman Cleisthenes, won a complete victory, and a new constitution, based on democratic principles, took effect about 502 bc. The beginning of democratic rule was the dawn of the greatest period of Athenian history. Agriculture and commerce flourished. Moreover, the center of artistic and intellectual endeavor, until that time situated in the cities of the Asia Minor coast, was rapidly transferred to thriving Athens.

The Persian wars.

The Greek colonies in Asia Minor had been conquered by Croesus, king of Lydia, in the early part of his reign (560–546 bc) and brought into the Lydian Empire. Croesus was a mild ruler, sympathetic to the Hellenes, and an ally of Sparta; the economic, political, and intellectual life of the colonies was greatly stimulated by Lydian rule. In 546 bc Croesus was overthrown by Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. Except for the island of Samos, which ably defended itself, the Greek cities in Asia and the coastal islands became part of the Persian Empire.

In 499 bc Ionia, assisted by Athens and Eretria, revolted against Persia. The rebels were, at first, successful, and King Darius I of Persia swore to avenge himself. He put down the revolt in 493 bc and, after sacking Miletus, reestablished his absolute control over Ionia. A year later Mardonius (fl. 500–479 bc), the king’s son-in-law, led a great Persian fleet to exact vengeance from Greece, but most of the ships were wrecked off Mount Áthos. At the same time, Darius sent heralds to Greece, requiring tokens of submission from all the Greek city-states. Although most of the smaller states acquiesced, Sparta and Athens refused, and slew the Persian heralds as a gesture of defiance. Darius, enraged by the Greek insult as well as by the fate of his fleet, prepared a second expedition, which set sail in 490 bc. After destroying Eretria, the Persian army proceeded to the plain of Marathon near Athens. The Athenian leaders sent to Sparta for aid, but the message arrived during a religious festival, which prevented the Spartans from leaving. Nevertheless, the Athenian army, under Miltiades, won an overwhelming victory over a Persian force three times as large, and the Persians withdrew.

Darius immediately began to ready a third expedition; his son, Xerxes I, who succeeded him in 486 bc, brought together one of the largest armies in ancient history. In 481 bc the Persians crossed the Hellespont strait over a bridge of boats and marched southward. The Greeks made their first stand in 480 bc at Thermopylae, where the Spartan leader Leonidas I and several thousand soldiers heroically defended the narrow pass. A treacherous Greek showed the Persians another path which enabled the invaders to enter the pass from the rear. Leonidas permitted most of his men to withdraw, but he and a force of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians resisted to the end and were annihilated. The Persians then proceeded to Athens, capturing and burning the abandoned city. Meanwhile, the Persian fleet pursued the Greek fleet to Salamis, an island in the Gulf of Aegina (now known as the Saronic Gulf) near Athens. In the naval battle that ensued, fewer than 400 Greek vessels, under the Athenian general and statesman Themistocles, defeated 1200 Persian vessels. Xerxes, who had watched the battle from a golden throne on a hill overlooking the harbor of Salamis, fled to Asia. In the following year, 479 bc, the remainder of the Persian forces in Greece were overwhelmed at Plataea, and the invaders were finally driven from the region.

The ascendancy of Athens.

As a result of its brilliant leadership in the Persian wars, Athens became the most influential state in Greece. Moreover, the wars had demonstrated the increasing importance of seapower, for the naval battle of Salamis had been the decisive engagement. Sparta, hitherto the greatest military power in Greece because of its army, lost its prestige to the Athenian fleet. In 478 bc a large number of Greek states formed a voluntary alliance, the Delian League, to drive the Persians from the Greek cities and coastal islands of Asia Minor. Athens, as a matter of course, headed the alliance. The victories of the league, then under the Athenian general Cimon, resulted (476–466 bc) in the liberation of the Asia Minor coast from Persia. Athens, however, began to exert its power over the other members of the league to such an extent that they became its subjects rather than its allies. The Athenians exacted tribute from their erstwhile confederates and, when Naxos attempted to withdraw from the league, the fortifications of that city were razed by Athens.

The period of Athenian domination during the 5th century bc has become known as the golden age of Greece. Under Pericles, who became leader of the popular party and head of the state in 460 bc, the city attained its greatest splendor. The Athenian constitution, reformed to further internal democracy, contained egalitarian provisions such as payment for jury service, thereby permitting even the poorest citizens to serve. Pericles was determined to make Athens the most beautiful city in the world.

The Parthenon, the Erechtheum, the Propylaea, and other great buildings were constructed. Greek drama reached its greatest expression with the plays of such dramatists as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comedy writer Aristophanes. Thucydides and Herodotus, an Ionian, became famous historians, and the cultivation of intellect in Periclean Athens made the city famous as an artistic and cultural center.

The Peloponnesian War.

Despite the excellent internal condition of the city, the foreign policy of Athens proved its undoing. The members of the Delian League were discontented and chafed under Athenian rule. Sparta, moreover, was envious of Athenian prosperity. A league between the cities of the Peloponnesus had existed since about 550 bc, under the domination of Sparta, and the Peloponnesian League began to oppose Athens actively. In 431 bc the inevitable clash between Athens and Sparta occurred. It was precipitated by Athenian aid to Corcyra during a dispute between Corcyra and Corinth, an ally of Sparta. Known as the Peloponnesian War, the struggle between the two great confederacies lasted until 404 bc and resulted in establishing Spartan supremacy in Greece. At the conclusion of the war, Sparta sponsored an oligarchy, known as the Thirty Tyrants, to rule Athens. Similar ruling bodies were established in the cities and islands of Asia Minor. Spartan rule soon showed itself as even harsher and more oppressive than that of Athens. In 403 bc the Athenians under Thrasybulus (c. 445–388 bc) revolted, expelled the Spartan garrison that had supported the oligarchs, and restored their democracy and independence. Other Greek cities consistently rebelled against the hegemony of Sparta.

Shifting alliances.

The Greek states began, individually, to seek aid from their traditional enemy, Persia. In 399 bc the marauding activities of Persia on the Asia Minor coast led Sparta to send an army there. Although the Spartan army met with some success, it was forced to return in 395 bc to oppose a coalition of Argos, Athens, Corinth, and Thebes. The resulting conflict, known as the Corinthian War, continued, mainly as small-scale warfare, until 387 bc, when Sparta, allying itself with Persia, imposed the Peace of Antalcidas on its unwilling subject states. By the terms of the Persian-Spartan settlement, the entire west coast of Asia Minor was ceded to Persia, and the city-states of Greece were made autonomous. Despite this agreement, Sparta in 382 bc invaded Thebes and captured the city of Olynthus in the north. The Theban general Pelopidas, supported by Athens, led an uprising three years later and expelled the Spartan occupation force. War between Sparta and Athens in alliance with Thebes was resumed, ending with the Battle of Leuctra, in 371 bc, in which the Thebans, led by Epaminondas, so completely defeated their enemies that Spartan domination came to an end. Thebes, by virtue of its victory, became the leading Greek state. The other states resented its leadership, and the ascendancy of Thebes inaugurated an unhappy period of civil unrest and economic misery resulting from internecine strife. Athens, in particular, refused to submit to Theban supremacy and in 369 bc became an ally of Sparta. At best insecure, the Theban hegemony was dependent principally on the brilliant leadership of Epaminondas, and when he was killed in the Battle of Mantinea in 362 bc, Thebes again became just another state among many.

Macedonian supremacy.

During this period of strife in Greece, Macedonia, the northern neighbor of Greece, was initiating a policy of expansion that was destined to make it one of the greatest world powers in ancient history. The Macedonians, a people akin to the Hellenes, had been consistently sympathetic to Greece. Philip II, who became king of Macedonia in 359 bc, was a great admirer of Greek civilization, but he was well aware of its greatest weakness, the lack of political unity. Directly after he came to the throne, Philip annexed the Greek colonies on the coast of Macedonia and Thrace and determined to make himself master of the peninsula. Astute political craft and the force of Macedonian arms helped Philip to realize his ambitions, despite the opposition of many prominent Greek statesmen led by Demosthenes. By 338 bc, he was sufficiently powerful to call a congress of the Greek states, which acknowledged Macedonian supremacy in the peninsula and appointed Philip commander in chief of the Greek forces. A year later, a second congress declared war on Persia, the traditional enemy. Philip began at once to prepare for an Asian campaign, but he was assassinated in 336 bc. His son, Alexander, who was then 20 years old, succeeded him.

In 334 bc Alexander set out to invade Persia. During the next ten years, his conquests extended Greek influence as well as the Greek civilization and language throughout a Macedonian empire that ranged as far east as northern India and as far south and west as Egypt. By the time of Alexander’s death in 323 bc, the culture of Greece had spread through most of the ancient world.

HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Following the death of Alexander, the Macedonian generals began to partition his vast empire among themselves. The disagreements arising from this division resulted in a series of wars from 322 to 275 bc, many of which took place in Greece. Thus, one of the characteristics of the Hellenistic period, which lasted from the death of Alexander until the acquisition of Greece as a Roman province in 146 bc, was the deterioration of the Greek city-states as political entities and the gradual decline of Greek political independence as a whole.

Nevertheless, the Hellenistic period was marked by the triumph of Greece as the fountainhead of culture, and its way of life was adopted, as a result of Alexander’s conquests, throughout most of the ancient world.

The Diadochi.

Of the kingdoms established by the generals of Alexander, called the Diadochi (Gr. diadochos, “successor”), the most important were Syria under the Seleucid dynasty, and Egypt under the rule of the Ptolemies. The capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, Alexandria, which had been founded by Alexander in 332 bc, developed into a center of Greek learning rivaling and occasionally surpassing Athens. Every part of the Hellenistic world devoted itself to the cultivation of art and intellect. Such men as the mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes, the philosophers Epicurus and Zeno, and the poets Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus were characteristic of the age. So strongly was Hellenistic culture implanted that it became one of the most important elements in early Christianity.

In 290 bc the city-states of central Greece began to join the Aetolian League, a powerful military confederation that had originally been organized during the reign of Philip II by the cities of Aetolia for their mutual benefit and protection. A second and similar organization, known as the Achaean League, became, in 280 bc, the supreme confederation of the cities in the northern Peloponnesus. Later other cities joined. Both alliances dedicated themselves to saving Greece from domination by the kingdom of Macedonia. The Achaean League became much more powerful than its rival and tried to acquire control of all Greece. Led by the statesman and general Aratus of Sicyon (271–213 bc), the league began a conflict with Sparta, which had joined neither alliance. In the war between the Achaeans and Sparta, the league was at first defeated, and forgoing its primary purpose, called on Macedonia for military aid, which was granted. The alliance then defeated Sparta, but from that time on it was dominated by Macedonia.

Roman interference.

In 215 bc Rome began to interfere in Greek affairs. Philip V of Macedonia allied himself with Carthage against Rome, but the Romans, acquiring the support of the Aetolian League, overcame the Macedonian forces in 206 bc and obtained a firm foothold in Greece. Rome, aided by both leagues, again defeated Philip in 197 bc, and Macedonia, completely subjugated, agreed to a peace with Rome by which the independence of Greece was recognized. The Greeks found that they had exchanged one master for another. In a last desperate attempt to free themselves, the members of the Achaean League resisted the demands that Rome made on it in 149 bc. The resulting war ended with the destruction of Corinth by Roman legions in 146 bc. The leagues were abolished and Greece passed completely into the power of Rome, which united Macedonia and Greece to form the Roman province of Macedonia.

ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL GREECE

For 60 years after 146 bc, Greece was competently administered by Rome. Some cities, such as Athens and Sparta, even retained their free status. In 88 bc, when Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, began a campaign of conquest in Roman-controlled territories, however, many cities of Greece supported the Asian monarch because he had promised to help them regain their independence. Roman legions under Lucius Cornelius Sulla forced Mithridates out of Greece and crushed the rebellion, sacking Athens in 86 bc and Thebes a year later. Roman punishment of all the rebellious cities was heavy, and the campaigns fought on Greek soil left central Greece in ruins. As a result, the country began to disintegrate economically. Athens remained a center of philosophy and learning, but its commerce became almost nonexistent. About 22 bc Augustus, the first Roman emperor, separated Greece from Macedonia and made the former a province called Achaea.

Greek Renaissance.

Under the Roman Empire, in the first centuries of the Christian era, a Greek renaissance took place, particularly during the reign of the emperor Hadrian. With his contemporary, the wealthy Greek scholar Herodes Atticus, Hadrian beautified Athens and restored many of the ruined cities. In the middle of the 3d century ad, however, this rebirth was checked by the Goths, who in 267–68 overran the peninsula, captured Athens, and laid waste the cities of Argos, Corinth, and Sparta.

After 395 the Roman Empire was ruled by two coemperors, one in the Latin West and the other in the Hellenic East. By the 6th century a successor empire, known as the Byzantine, had evolved in the East. It included all of Greece and the Aegean region and was characterized by a mixture of Hellenic culture, Oriental influences from the Middle East, and Christianity. Greece itself became a neglected and obscure province. From the 6th to the 8th century, Slavonic tribes from the north crowded into the peninsula, occupying Illyria and Thrace.

Duchy of Athens.

In the 13th century the ambition of the Frankish leaders of the Fourth Crusade interrupted the continuity of Byzantine rule. Constantinople fell to the Crusaders in 1204, and the conquerors, after sacking the Byzantine capital, established the Latin Empire of the East. They divided the Greek peninsula into feudal fiefs, of which the most prominent was the duchy of Athens. The Latin Empire fell in 1261, when Constantinople was reconquered by the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. During the next two centuries, the duchy of Athens was controlled successively by French, Spanish, and Italian rulers. In the 14th century the court of Athens was one of the most brilliant feudal courts of Europe.

OTTOMAN DOMINATION

In 1453 Muhammad II, sultan of Turkey, captured Constantinople and then turned his attention to the Peloponnesus and Attica; by 1460 these parts of Greece had been incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

During the next two centuries the Turks drove the Venetians and other alien powers from the few remaining outposts they held on the coast of Greece and in the Greek islands. The process was finished with the Turkish capture of Crete in 1669. For a brief period (1699–1718) Venice regained control of the Peloponnesus, but otherwise Greece remained under firm Ottoman domination until the 19th century.

Although Turkish rule was in many ways costly to the Greek people and in its later stages came to be corrupt and even brutal, it was not as draconian during its first centuries as has often been stated. Some Greeks had a relatively privileged position within the empire. The Greek patriarch was the political as well as the spiritual head of all the Orthodox, and many Phanariots—so called after the Greek quarter of Constantinople—held influential positions as Ottoman administrators and political advisers.

Spread of Nationalism.

A resurgence of Greek nationalism occurred in the latter part of the 18th century. The sentiment was considerably aided by Russia, which incited the Greek Orthodox Christians, coreligionists of the Russians, to revolt. In 1770 the Russian count Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov (1737–1809) landed a Russian fleet in the Peloponnesus and led an unsuccessful revolt against the Turks. Later, the French Revolution influenced Greek patriots, who began to plan for a major rebellion. A literary revival accompanied the spread of nationalism. A powerful secret society, the Philikê Hetairia (Friendly Association), founded in 1814 to prepare for the coming revolution, collected funds and arms through its centers in the Balkan and eastern Mediterranean regions. In 1821 Alexander Ypsilanti (1792–1828), a former aide-de-camp of the Russian czar Alexander I and head of the Hetairia, entered Iaqi, the capital of Moldavia (then Turkish territory), with a small force and proclaimed the independence of Greece. The revolt ended in disaster a few months later, because the czar refused to aid the revolutionary movement. During the abortive attempt by Ypsilanti, a general uprising occurred in the Peloponnesus under the leadership of Germanos, archbishop of Patros (1771–1826).

War of Independence.

In the first phase (1821–24) of the war for Greek independence, the Greeks fought virtually alone, aided only by money and volunteers from other European countries, where the Greek cause had aroused a great deal of sympathy. Among the Greek leaders were Markos Bozzaris (1788?–1823), Theodoros Kolokotrones (1770–1843), Alexandros Mavrokordatos (1798–1865), and Andreas Vokos Miaoules (1768?–1835). Mahmud II, sultan of Turkey, in 1824 asked aid of Muhammad Ali, viceroy of Egypt, who agreed to help in return for control of Crete and other Turkish possessions if he quelled the rebellion. The Egyptian troops pushed their way up the Peloponnesus, and by 1826 the entire southern peninsula was in their hands. The Greeks suffered from political as well as military weakness because of factional strife among their leaders. A temporary conciliation between them was effected in 1827, and a new republican constitution was approved in that year by a national assembly, which elected the Russian-Greek statesman Count Ioánnis Antónios Kapodístrias the first president of the Greek republic. Party quarrels began again almost immediately after this short-lived truce.

The Powers Intervene.

Because of the strategic importance of Greece on the continent of Europe, the European powers agreed in 1827 to intervene militarily on behalf of the Greeks. The powers were particularly fearful of Muhammad Ali’s potential menace to them, should he obtain further Mediterranean territory. France, Great Britain, and Russia first demanded an armistice, which the Turkish government, commonly known as the Porte, refused. The European powers then sent naval forces to Greece. The presence of the naval forces, and the efforts of Russia, in particular, forced the Porte to accept a settlement. In 1829 the Treaty of Adrianople terminated the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, which had grown out of both the Greek revolution and Russia’s own aspirations in southeastern Europe. The defeated Porte consented to whatever arrangements the European powers might make for Greece. In 1830 France, Great Britain, and Russia issued the London Protocol, which negated the Greek constitution and declared Greece an autonomous kingdom under their united protection. The territory of the kingdom was considerably less than the Greeks had expected, the northern frontier being set only slightly north of the Gulf of Corinth.

MODERN GREECE

A period of great civil unrest followed the War of Independence. Factional strife persisted and the Greeks, who had envisioned their renascent country as commensurate with ancient Hellas, objected strenuously to the diminution of their territory. While the powers were trying to find a king for Greece, the administration of the country was left to Kapodístrias, who governed in a dictatorial fashion until he was assassinated in 1831. Civil war then broke out. At length, in 1832, Otto of Bavaria accepted the throne offered him by the European powers and in the following year was crowned Otto I, king of Greece.

The political reorganization of Greece was undertaken by a Bavarian regency, Otto being only 17 years of age at his accession to the throne. The Bavarian regents denied the Greeks a constitution, burdened them with excessive taxation, and tried to set up a centralized bureaucracy. Although they were dismissed in 1835, the situation did not much improve. Greek resentment culminated in a bloodless revolution in 1843, after which the king was compelled to grant the country a constitution. Popular discontent with Otto increased in 1854, when the king, against the will of his people, acquiesced in the British and French occupation of Piraiévs to prevent a Greco-Russian alliance during the Crimean War of 1854–56. In 1862 part of the Greek army revolted against Otto, and he was deposed in the same year by a national assembly with the approval of the powers. A national plebiscite chose Prince Alfred (1844–1900), second son of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, as king, but the British government rejected the offer and nominated Prince William George, second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. The prince was acceptable to the Greeks, and he was crowned George I in 1863. To demonstrate its approval, the British government ceded the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate since 1815, to the reconstituted monarchy. In the following year, a new, more democratic constitution granted universal male suffrage and a unicameral legislature.

Struggle for Territory.

During the last decades of the 19th century, the major thrust of Greek foreign policy aimed at expanding the territory of the kingdom. Following the defeat of Turkey in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, the Congress of Berlin recommended that Turkey readjust the northern frontier of Greece. Turkey refused, and Greece declared war in 1878. The great powers, however, intervened before major hostilities began and recommended that Turkey award Thessaly and part of Epirus to Greece. Turkey refused to give up all the stipulated territory. In 1885 Eastern Rumelia revolted against Turkish rule and was incorporated into Bulgaria. Greece at once took arms and demanded that Turkey adhere to the territorial recommendations of 1878. Again the powers forced Greece to disarm, this time by blockading the main Greek ports until Greece complied. The annexation of Macedonia and Crete then became the object of Greek agitation for territorial expansion. A secret military society, the Ethnike Hetairia (National Association), was founded in 1894 to foment insurrection in these Turkish provinces. When the Cretans revolted against their rulers in 1896, Greece came to their aid. A request from the powers that Greek forces withdraw from Crete was refused by the Greek government. Some months later members of the Ethnike Hetairia attacked Turkish posts in Macedonia, inciting Turkey to declare war, a conflict for which Greece was not prepared. After several weeks of fighting, the Greek army was reduced to a panic-stricken mob fleeing before the Turkish troops. Total disaster was prevented by action of the great powers, and Russia demanded that the Turks cease fighting. Greece, following this episode, was required to pay Turkey a large indemnity, which exacerbated the precarious state of Greek finances and gave the European powers added control because of the increase in the Greek foreign debt. In 1898 Turkey was compelled by the powers to withdraw all its forces from Crete, and Prince George (1869–1957), the second son of George I, was appointed high commissioner of Crete under the protection of the European powers. For the next ten years, Crete was shaken by internal disputes, resulting primarily from the refusal of the powers to permit union with Greece. Disagreements between Prince George and Eleutherios Venizelos, the pro-Greek political leader of Crete, led the prince to resign in 1906. Two years later the Cretan assembly proclaimed the long-desired union. The powers reluctantly withdrew their forces from the island and, in 1912, Cretan representatives sat for the first time in the Greek legislature.

The Balkan Wars.

Meanwhile, the question of Macedonia was becoming more complicated, for Greece was not the only Balkan country desiring that region. Rising currents of nationalism in the Balkans, particularly in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, were considerably stimulated by the gradual disintegration of the Turkish Empire, which was in such a decadent and weak state that it was called the “sick man of Europe.” During most of the 19th century, the emerging Balkan states maintained peaceful relations with each other because of their mutual antagonism toward Turkey. They formed alliances, and a confederation of the Balkan states was contemplated. The disposition of Macedonia, however, aroused bitter disagreement. Conflicting political ambitions resulted in emphasizing the religious differences between Muslims and Christians, and disputes erupted among the various Balkan peoples. In 1903 a Bulgarian insurrection broke out in Macedonia, the rebels declaring their goal to be union with Bulgaria. Greece resolved to aid Turkey covertly and encouraged Greek guerrillas to cross the border and attack Bulgarians and Vlachs in Macedonia. Determined to restore order and assert its hegemony, Turkey in 1912 dispatched troops to quell all the fighting groups. At this move, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro laid aside their quarrels and, forming military alliances, declared war on Turkey (see Balkan Wars). Turkey was completely defeated in the First Balkan War fought during 1912–13. By the terms of the Treaty of London, it relinquished all claims to Crete and its European territories, except for a small area including İstanbul. Dissension between the Balkan allies concerning the disposition of the former Turkish territory, however, led to the Second Balkan War, in which Greece and Serbia fought Bulgaria. The latter was defeated in a month. The Treaty of Bucharest in 1913 almost doubled the area and population of Greece, as Macedonia and part of Thrace, including Salonika, were added to its territory.

SPARTA,

also Lacedaemon, city in ancient Greece, and capital of Laconia, and the most famous ancient Greek city of the Pelopónnisos. It was on the right bank of the Evrótas River, about 32.5 km (about 20 mi) from the sea, in the foothills of Mount Taygetus.

Ancient Sparta.

The ancient city, even in its most prosperous days, was merely a group of five villages with simple houses and a few public buildings. The passes leading into the valley of the Evrótas were easily defended, and Sparta had no walls until the end of the 4th century bc. The inhabitants of Laconia were divided into Helots (slaves), who performed all agricultural work; Perioeci, a subject class of free men without political rights, who were mainly tradesmen and merchants; and the Spartiatai, or governing class, rulers and soldiers, descended from the Dorians, who had invaded the area about 1100 bc.

The foundation of Spartan greatness was attributed to the legislation of Lycurgus, but was more probably the result of ascetic reforms introduced about 600 bc. In the 7th century bc, life in Sparta was similar to that in other Greek cities, and art and poetry, particularly choral lyrics (see ALCMAN), flourished. From the 6th century bc on, however, the Spartans looked upon themselves as merely a military garrison, and all their discipline pointed to war. No deformed child was allowed to live; boys began military drill at the age of 7 and entered the ranks at 20. Although permitted to marry, they were compelled to live in barracks until the age of 30; from the ages of 20 to 60 all Spartans were obliged to serve as hoplites (foot soldiers) and to eat at the phiditia (“public mess”).

The earliest struggles of Sparta were with Messinía, the southwestern district of Pelopónnisos, and Argos, a city located in northeastern Pelopónnisos. The Messenian War terminated about 668 bc in the complete overthrow of the Dorians of Messinía, most of whom were reduced to the status of helots. In the wars with the descendants of the original Achaeans and with the Dorians of Argos, the Spartans were generally successful. Under their stern discipline, the Spartans became a race of resolute, ascetic warriors, capable of self-sacrificing patriotism, as shown by the devoted 300 heroes at THERMOPYLAE (q.v.; see also LEONIDAS I), but utterly unable to adopt a wise political and economic program. The outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 bc finally brought the rivalry between Sparta and Athens to a head. Upon the overthrow of Athens in 404 bc, Sparta became the dominant Greek state, but the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 bc deprived Sparta of its power and territorial acquisitions, reducing the state to its original boundaries. Sparta later became a portion of the Roman province of Achaea and seems to have prospered in the early centuries of the Roman Empire. The city itself was destroyed by the Goths under their king, Alaric I, in 396 ad.

History.

The Acropolis of Athens has been inhabited since Neolithic times (see Stone Age). As early as 1400 bc it was fortified in the manner of Mycenae, Tiryns, and other late Bronze Age citadels. At that time and in the subsequent “dark age” (1200–900 bc) that followed the Dorian invasions (see Dorians), Athens was one of a number of petty states in Attica.

The early city-state.

In the mid-9th century bc, the surrounding territory, including the seaport of Piraeus, was incorporated into the city-state of Athens. When the monarchy was replaced by an aristocracy of nobles, the common people had few rights. The city was controlled by the Areopagus (Council of Elders), who appointed three (later nine) magistrates, or archons, who were responsible for the conduct of war, religion, and law. Discontent with this system led to an abortive attempt at tyranny (dictatorship) by Cylon (632 bc). Continued unrest led to Draco’s (fl. 650–621 bc) harsh but definite law code enacted in 621 bc. The code only compounded the social and economic crises, but eventually it brought about the consensus appointment of Solon as archon in 594 bc. Solon established a council (see boule), a popular assembly (ekklesía), and law courts. He also encouraged trade, reformed the coinage, and invited foreign businessmen to the city. His reforms, however, were only partially successful.

The age of tyrants.

Between 560 and 510 bc Athens was ruled under the tyrant Pisistratus and his sons Hippias and Hipparchus (c. 555–514 bc). Pisistratus enlarged the meeting place of Solon’s council in the agora (marketplace) and built a new temple of Athena, the city’s patron goddess, on the Acropolis. Pisistratus also sponsored public events such as the Panathenaic festival, held every fourth year in Athena’s honor. Many other public works were undertaken during this period. In 508 bc Cleisthenes led a democratic revolution, reorganizing the city’s tribal structure so that the base of his support was in the more democratic urban center and in Piraeus. The powerful popular assembly met on the Pnyx hill below the Acropolis.

The classical period.

In 480 bc Athens was sacked and nearly destroyed by the Persians (see Greece: Persian Wars). The Athenian leader Themistocles, having defeated the Persian invaders at Salamis, began the restoration of the city, building circuit walls around both Athens and Piraeus. He also began construction of walls connecting Athens with the port. His work was continued by Pericles in the 450s bc. Pericles, more than any other democratic leader, made Athens a great city. Public funds were used to build the Parthenon, the temple of Niké, the Erechtheum, and other great monuments. He developed the agora, which began to display imports from around the world. As head of the Delian League of Greek city-states, Athens was now an imperial power; its courts tried cases from all over the Aegean. The culture of the city was magnificent. Great tragedies and comedies were produced in the theater of Dionysus, below the Acropolis, and Pericles’ circle included leading intellectuals. The city, with its democratic constitution and brilliant way of life, became the “school of Hellas.” At its height, the population was perhaps 200,000 people, of whom 50,000 were full male citizens; the rest—women, foreigners, and slaves—were not citizens.

After its defeat by Sparta in the destructive Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc), the city began to decline. Socrates was forced to take his own life when he questioned traditional ideas, and an attitude of pessimism prevailed. Nevertheless, philosophy continued to flourish. In the 4th century bc Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum were founded as philosophical schools, and Demosthenes, Isocrates, and others made rhetoric a fine art.

Foreign domination.

Although Athens virtually lost its independence at Chaeronea in 338 bc to Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great, the town continued to be an important cultural center. It fell to Rome in 146 bc but maintained good relations with the Romans until they sacked it in 86 bc, destroying many of Athens’ monuments. Nonetheless, Athens remained a center of learning for prominent Greeks and Romans from the 1st century bc until late antiquity. In the 3d century ad it was damaged by invading Goths, who were repelled with some difficulty. In ad 529 the Christian emperor Justinian closed the pagan philosophical schools, virtually ending the city’s classical tradition.

During the Byzantine period Athens became a cultural backwater. Many of the city’s artworks were moved to Constantinople, and the temples became Christian churches. Byzantine emperors occasionally visited Athens, but the city was largely ignored and impoverished. After the Latin Crusaders conquered Constantinople in 1204 (see Byzantine Empire: Decline and Fall), Athens became a French feudal duchy. The Catalans took over the city in 1311, but they were expelled when a Florentine dynasty successfully installed itself in the late 14th century.

The Ottoman Turks (see Turkey: Rise of the Ottomans) gained complete control of Athens in 1458. The Parthenon, built as the major temple of the goddess Athena, was then made into a Muslim mosque. Under Turkish rule the town was still run by Greeks and had a mixed population of Turks, Greeks, and Slavs. The Parthenon was badly damaged in 1687, when a Venetian bombardment ignited gunpowder that had been stored inside the building.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

(356–323 bc), king of Macedonia, conqueror of the Persian Empire, and one of the greatest military geniuses of all times.

Alexander, born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia, was the son of Philip II, king of Macedonia, and of Olympias (c. 375–316 bc), a princess of Epirus. Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor; he gave Alexander a thorough training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy. In the summer of 336 bc Philip was assassinated, and Alexander ascended to the Macedonian throne. He found himself surrounded by enemies at home and threatened by rebellion abroad. Alexander disposed quickly of all conspirators and domestic enemies by ordering their executions. Then he descended on Thessaly, where partisans of independence had gained ascendancy, and restored Macedonian rule. Before the end of the summer of 336 bc he had reestablished his position in Greece and was elected by a congress of states at Corinth. In 335 bc as general of the Greeks in a campaign against the Persians, originally planned by his father, he carried out a successful campaign against the defecting Thracians, penetrating to the Ister (modern Danube) River. On his return he crushed in a single week the threatening Illyrians and then hastened to Thebes, which had revolted. He took the city by storm and razed it, sparing only the temples of the gods and the house of the Greek lyric poet Pindar, and selling the surviving inhabitants, about 8000 in number, into slavery. Alexander’s promptness in crushing the revolt of Thebes brought the other Greek states into instant and abject submission.

Alexander commenced his war against the Persian Empire during the spring of 334 bc. He began his conquest by crossing the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) with an army of 35,000 Macedonian and Greek troops; his chief officers, all Macedonians, included Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. At the river Granicus, near the ancient city of Troy, he attacked an army of Persians and Greek mercenaries totaling 40,000 men. His forces defeated the enemy and, according to tradition, lost only 110 men; after this battle all the states of Asia Minor submitted to him. In passing through Phrygia he is said to have cut with his sword the GORDIAN KNOT, (q.v.). Continuing to advance southward, Alexander encountered the main Persian army, commanded by King Darius III, at Issus, in northeastern Syria. The size of Darius’s army is unknown; the ancient tradition that it contained 500,000 men is now considered a fantastic exaggeration. The Battle of Issus, in 333, ended in a great victory for Alexander. Cut off from his base, Darius fled northward, abandoning his mother, wife, and children to Alexander, who treated them with the respect due to royalty. Tyre, a strongly fortified seaport, offered obstinate resistance, but Alexander took it by storm in 332 after laying siege to it for seven months. Alexander captured Gaza next and then passed on into Egypt, where he was greeted by the people as a deliverer. As a result of these successes Alexander secured control of the entire eastern Mediterranean coastline. Later in 332 he founded, at the mouth of the Nile River, the city of Alexandria, which later became the literary, scientific, and commercial center of the Greek world. Cyrene, the capital of the ancient North African kingdom of Cyrenaica, submitted to Alexander soon afterward, thus extending his dominion to Carthaginian territory.

In the spring of 331 Alexander made a pilgrimage to the great temple and oracle of Amon-Ra, Egyptian god of the sun, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus. The earlier Egyptian pharaohs were believed to be sons of Amon-Ra; and Alexander, the new ruler of Egypt, wanted the god to acknowledge him as his son. The pilgrimage apparently was successful, and it may have confirmed in him a belief in his own divine origin. Turning northward again, he reorganized his forces at Tyre and started for Babylon with an army of 40,000 infantry and 7000 cavalry. Crossing the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, he met Darius at the head of an army of unknown size, which, according to the exaggerated accounts of antiquity, was said to number a million men; this army he completely defeated in the Battle of Gaugamela, on Oct. 1, 331. Darius then fled as he had done at Issus and was later slain by two of his own generals. Babylon surrendered after Gaugamela, and the city of Susa with its enormous treasures was soon conquered. Then, in midwinter, Alexander forced his way to Persepolis, the Persian capital. After plundering the royal treasuries and taking other rich booty, he burned the city during a drunken binge and thus completed the destruction of the ancient Persian Empire. Alexander’s domain now extended along and beyond the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, including modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan, and northward into Bactria and Sogdiana, the modern Russian Turkestan, also known as Central Asia. It had taken Alexander only three years, from the spring of 330 bc to the spring of 327 bc, to master this vast area.

In order to complete his conquest of the remnants of the Persian Empire, which had once included part of western India, Alexander crossed the Indus River in 326 bc and invaded the Punjab as far as the river Hyphasis (modern Beas); at this point the Macedonians rebelled and refused to go farther. He then constructed a fleet and passed down the Indus, reaching its mouth in September 325 bc. The fleet then sailed to the Persian Gulf. With his army, he returned overland across the desert to Media. Shortages of food and water caused severe losses and hardship among his troops. Alexander spent about a year organizing his dominions and completing a survey of the Persian Gulf in preparation for further conquests. He arrived in Babylon in the spring of 323 bc. In June he contracted a fever and died. He left his empire, in his own words, “to the strongest”; this ambiguous testament resulted in dire conflicts for half a century.

Alexander was one of the greatest generals of all time, noted for his brilliance as a tactician and troop leader and for the rapidity with which he could traverse great expanses of territory. He was usually brave and generous, but could be cruel and ruthless when politics demanded. The theory has been advanced that he was actually an alcoholic having, for example, killed his friend Clitus (d. 328 bc) in a drunken fury. He later regretted this act deeply. As a statesman and ruler he had grandiose plans; according to many modern historians he cherished a scheme for uniting the East and the West in a world empire, a new and enlightened “world brotherhood of all men.” He trained thousands of Persian youths in Macedonian tactics and enrolled them in his army. He himself adopted Persian manners and married Eastern wives, namely, Roxana (d. about 311 bc), daughter of Oxyartes of Sogdiana, and Barsine (or Stateira; d. about 323 bc), the elder daughter of Darius; and he encouraged and bribed his officers to take Persian wives. Shortly before he died, Alexander ordered the Greek cities to worship him as a god. Although he probably gave the order for political reasons, he was, in his own view and that of his contemporaries, of divine birth. The order was largely nullified by his death shortly after he issued it.

To bind his conquests together, Alexander founded a number of cities, most of them named Alexandria, along his line of march; these cities were well located, well paved, and provided with good water supplies. Greek veterans from his army settled in them; young men, traders, merchants, and scholars were attracted to them; Greek culture was introduced; and the Greek language became widely known. Thus, Alexander vastly extended the influence of Greek civilization and prepared the way for the kingdoms of the Hellenistic period and the conquests of the Roman Empire.

THEBES,

city of ancient Greece, in Boeotia, north of Mount Cithaeron (now Kithair—n), northwest of Athens. Its acropolis was called Cadmeia, from the legend that it was founded by a colony of Phoenicians under Cadmus. No city of ancient Greece was more celebrated in myth and legend. The cycles of myths include stories of the twin brothers Amphion and Zethus, who were said to have ruled Thebes and built its walls; the tragic fate of its king Oedipus and the rivalry of his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, which culminated in the expedition of the Seven Against Thebes and the later capture and destruction of the city by the Epigoni; the return of the nature god Dionysus and the introduction of his worship at Thebes; and the birth and exploits of the famous hero Hercules.

Thebes in historical times was long an enemy of Athens, and in 479 bc, during the Persian invasion under Xerxes I, the Thebans sided with the invaders and fought against the confederated Greeks at Plataea. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 bc, Thebes joined the side of Sparta and at the close of the war was eager for the destruction of Athens; it soon, however, began to dread the heightened power of its ally and joined (394 bc) the confederation against Sparta. Hence arose a bitter antagonism between Thebes and Sparta, and a struggle ensued that resulted in a short period of Theban supremacy over all Greece, won by the victory of Epaminondas at Leuctra in 371 bc, and brought to an end by the death of Epaminondas at Mantinea in 362 bc.

The eloquence of the Athenian orator Demosthenes induced the Thebans to unite with the Athenians in opposition to the encroachments of King Philip II of Macedonia, but their combined forces were of no avail, and in 338 bc, in the Battle of Chaeronea, the power of Greece was crushed. After the death of Philip, the Thebans made a fierce but unsuccessful attempt to regain their freedom. Their city was taken (335 bc) by Philip’s son and successor, Alexander the Great, and leveled to the ground, and the entire surviving population was sold into slavery. Alexander is said to have spared only the temples and the house of the poet Pindar. Although the city was rebuilt (315 bc) by King Cassander (350?–297 bc) of Macedonia and prospered for a time, it had dwindled to a wretched village by the 1st century bc. At present, the site of the acropolis named after Cadmus is occupied by the town of Thebai (pop., 1991, 19,509).