Ancient Civilizations
Ancient Greek Civilization
Posted by cosmic • Filed under ancient civilizations, cultures
The Greeks
The beginning of Greek Civilization is unknown, and can be traced back to Stone Age hunters and gatherers. Ancient Greece is probably the most well known early civilization. They are mostly known for their advances in arts, sciences, math, and technology.
One of the technological advances of the Greek civilization was its practice in the field of medicine. Throughout literature it has been proven that the Greeks had highly advanced practices in surgeries, and medical practices. One of the other vast Greek advances was in the field of philosophy. Some of the best known and studied philosophers were from ancient Greece, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They worked with mathematical problems and found solutions far ahead of their time period.
Greece was a very high class civilization, where the government was based on city states. Perhaps their greatest invention of all was the form of government that we still use today, democracy. The Greek commerce and trade by sea is where the Greek city states accumulated their wealth. Greece's power was also attributable to their warfare ability. Some of these wars include the Trojan War, and the Peloponnesian War. The most famous city state for warfare was Sparta. The Spartans taught their children to fight around the age of eight, while the other famous city states like Athens were known for the decadence and royalty.
The infamous ruler of Greece, Alexander The Great, was the leader of Macedonia, the city state that eventually took control over Greece. Alexander The Great conquered new lands, and adopted the new land's customs instead of forcing his customs on the new territory. This is why many of the conquered civilizations were actually accepting of the takeover. He also encouraged his soldiers to marry the women from the new territories to show cultural intertwinement.
The Greeks are commonly known for their introducing of the Olympic Games, which are currently still practiced today after being brought back in 1896. The winners of the ancient Greek Olympics did not win prizes though - they simply did it for honour. Most of the Olympic Games at the times of the Greeks did not include actual sports but more like competitions such as javelin throwing, wrestling, or boxing.
The Greeks believed there were gods for almost every naturally occurring thing. The Greeks had the more famous gods such as Zeus, and Poseidon. This also brought about a great deal of literature - some of the better known works are the Odyssey and Iliad by Homer.