The first Greek civilization, known as
Mycenaean (c. 1600-1200 BC) owed much to the
Minoan civilization of Crete and may have
been produced by the intermarriage of
Greek-speaking invaders with the original
inhabitants. From the 14th century BC a new
wave of invasions began. The Achaeans overran
Greece and Crete, destroying the Minoan and
Mycenaean civilizations and penetrating Asia
Minor; to this period belongs the siege of
Troy (c. 1180). The latest of the invaders
were the Dorians (c. 1100) who settled in the
Peloponnese and founded Sparta; that great
city-state arose during the obscure period
that followed (1100-800). The mountainous
geography of Greece hindered the cities from
attaining any national unity, and led the
Greeks to take to the sea. During the years
750-550 the Greeks not only became great
traders, but founded colonies around the
coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea, in Asia Minor, Sicily, S Italy, S
France, Spain, and N Africa. Many Greek
cities passed from monarchy to the rule of a
landowning or merchant oligarchy and thence
to democracy. Thus Athens passed through the
democratic reforms of Solon (594), the
enlightened `tyranny' of Pisistratus
(560-527), and the establishment of democracy
by Cleisthenes (c. 507). Sparta remained
unique, a state in which a ruling race,
organized on military lines, tyrannized the
original population. After 545 BC the Ionian
cities fell under the dominion of the Persian
Empire. Aid given them by Athens in an
unsuccessful revolt in 499-494 provoked
Darius of Persia to invade Greece in 490 only
to be defeated by the Athenians at Marathon
and forced, to withdraw. Another invasion by
the Persian Emperor Xerxes, after being
delayed by the heroic defence of Thermopylae
by 300 Spartans, was defeated at sea off
Salamis in 480 and on land at Plataea in 479.
The Ionian cities were liberated and formed a
naval alliance with Athens, the Confederacy
of Delos. Pericles, the real ruler of Athens
461-429, attempted to convert this into an
Athenian empire and to form a land empire in
Greece. Mistrust of his ambitions led to the
Peloponnesian War (431-404), which destroyed
the political power of Athens. In 5th-century
Athens, Greek tragedy, comedy, sculpture, and
architecture were at their peak, and Socrates
and Plato founded moral philosophy. After the
Peloponnesian War, Sparta became the leading
Greek power until it was overthrown by Thebes
(378-371). The constant wars between the
cities gave Philip II of Macedon (358-336)
the opportunity to establish his supremacy
over Greece. His son Alexander the Great
overthrew the decadent Persian Empire,
conquered Syria and Egypt, and invaded the
Punjab. After his death in 323 his empire was
divided among his generals, but his conquest
had nevertheless spread Greek culture to the
Near East. During the 3rd century BC the
cities attempted to maintain their
independence against Macedon, Egypt, and Rome
by forming federations; for example, the
Achaean and Aetolian Leagues. Roman
intervention began in 212 and ended in the
annexation of Greece in 146. Under Roman rule
Greece remained a cultural centre, until the
emperor Justinian closed the university of
Athens in AD 529.