one of the most famous civilizations in world history is with a doubt the greek city-states providing the world was some of its most rich and developed culture at that time even today the greeks are studied for their relatively advanced society despite the time welcome to history simplified and today we'll be presenting you with the rise of the ancient greek civilization don't forget to subscribe to our channel and to turn notifications on for more videos like today without further ado let's begin greek has been repeatedly described as a fallen and yet somehow immortal society because of its incredible cultural impact most of which is still felt today through most of its history greece was poor in the classical area though greece was incredibly populated and very urbanized many surprisingly healthy greeks lived in remarkably big houses and worked for high wages at specialized occupations middle class spending drove sustained economic growth and classical wealth producing a stunning cultural effor essence lasting hundreds of years however greek's height was only reached during the classical period despite experiencing was once known as the greek miracle they were defeated and their glory brought to an abrupt end when we're talking of ancient greece we're actually referring to two very broad and important periods in the history of this country first we have the classical age from 480 to 323 bc and then we have the year 700 to 480 before christ these were mostly known for its art architecture and philosophy archaea greek was advanced in art poetry and technology but it's mostly known for the age in which the city-state or polis was invented greece could be more accurately described as a constellation of ancient cultures precisely due to the city-state system yes greece wasn't just a place it was actually several intertwined cultures under the same banner though all of them had their own ruling system and politics between each other concepts such as colonialism democracy and military strategy can be traced back to origins at early greek history in this timeline will mark the rise of greece from its proliterate beginnings to its decline and eventual fall to rome's superior forces more than 2100 years ago greece is one of the four pillars of important civilizations to have influenced western societies and its main traits can also be highlighted in its contemporary societies such as the romans the sumerians of mesopotamia and the egyptian dynasties all of these civilizations established laws revered one or many gods created voting rights for citizens advanced science and put the expressive arts above all things we look back to these ancient societies and recognize the seeds and sprouts that flourished in the following cultures the greek inhabitants were called helles the reason why the silly states were created was because during what was called the greek dark ages before the archaic period people inhabited throughout greece and nothing more than small farming villages these villages grew larger and thus they also began to evolve some of them built walls though most built what was known as agora or marketplace the agora was more than just a place to buy and sell or set up shop it was a community meeting place where people interacted people developed governments and also organized their citizens according to some sort of constitution or set of laws they also raised armies and set up a tax collection system each of these polis was said to be protected by a particular god or goddess to whom the citizens of the polis owed reverence respect and sacrifice for example athens deity was athena and so was sparta's next we had corinth thebes and delphi one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of greece is how they develop their own writing style it's a still undeciphered script called linear a which also appears in historical record around 1500 bce another familiar looking form known as linear b emerges as a writing style being recognizable enough on a precursor to the greek language it has also been translated and provides some insights into greek life before more advanced settlements evolved around that year prosperous tradesmen began developing each of the agoras and establishing complex settlements among their towns some islands in the agion sea and port cities became sites of comfortable dwelling with many signs of luxury the city of massenay was the most prosperous one with wealth being concentrated in the hands of only a few of the richest men there the privileged group of high class of the time included kings merchants and the priests that kept the temples running which is not very different from what happens today mycena became both a trading and military power and by 1300 bce is the dominant power of the agion its wealth and influence are such that this era from approximately 1600 to 1100 bce is called the mycenaean period of greek history next up nosos becomes a successful trading village nosos is located on the island of crete and despite being assaulted by several natural disasters like earthquakes and invasions the city is wealthy enough to erect an even more impressive temple on the site of the original merchants proceed to extend trade routes further west to iberia and also north into the interior of modern day europe unsurprisingly mice and aids power and prosperity is envied by its neighbors from the helles and from abroad too mice and sully attacked in the 12th century bce by several waves of invaders historically regarded as nothing more than sea people though they were most likely coastal anatolians they were also followed by their internal rivals the dorians and also hit by an earthquake wow quick fun and interesting fact the reason why there are so many earthquakes in greece is because the northern again sea and mainland greece both rest on active fault lines that have across several millennia cause tens of thousands of tremors and quakes there's also evidence that greeks might have considered earthquake scarred zones as blessed by the gods they've also repeatedly rebuilt the same spots where earthquakes destroyed important structures athens which is an ally of masani escaped destruction around the time and by 900 bce it increased an influence by encouraging non-dorian greeks to colonize the surrounding cities even the wealthy and powerful mycenea were unable to endure a combination of so many external and internal factors eventually athens took the center stage with its power and cultural influence massively increasing in the 9th and 8th centuries bce it also sponsored the first ever olympic games in 776 bce and during the same decade homer's landmark epic poems the iliad and the odyssey were written that's essentially a landmark moment for humanity in general during this time athenian government officials were elected by fellow citizens rather than appointed this is how the first democracy was also created its citizens accumulated wealth and formed many dynasties to pass from generation to generations creating the concept of inheritance it just seems like the greeks had a knack for inventing stuff before anyone else had the idea of doing the same however at the same time sparta another dorian city state became the first class military power in the area by the middle of the 7th century bce the importance and power of athens was challenged by it while athens was known for its support of arts and culture sparta was a very different and aggressive type of fish the ruling class esparta viewed itself as non-citizens of their lands but instead as marauders who invaded the dorian region and took it over to enslave the native inhabitants whom they unceremoniously labeled as helots while anthillians were no strangest to the concept of slavery they never reached the inhumane numbers as spartans did spartans became wealthy by basically living on the backs of the helots who outnumbered them ten to one spartans were on guard against the possibility of a slave rebellion at any time spartan's culture as movies had made a bit infamous was definitely different from athenian culture all spartan men are radically required to defend their city-state and their military prowess became second to none the rivalry and divergent cultures continued for centuries to the point of exaggeration by the films and movies they came a couple centuries afterwards as we mentioned the first concept of a democracy was born in athens but its seeds were planted during the previous periods which is what allowed them to sprout into one of the most important concepts in politics and social science in 594 bce solon became an arkhan which is a magistrate in greek of athens solon also instituted some big changes in athenian society first all debts were cancelled for the peasants of attica it also made illegal to enslave depthers and citizens were now all entitled to participate in the ecclesia the body that elects archons moving forward and near the end of the century in 508 bce a new athenian ruler known as claithians affected a big political reform now every citizen got their own voice in the deimos which is the local council in towns and villages athens also became more intellectually advanced schools were formed for the children of citizens and even a job description was created philosophers were now some of the most important men in society these important political and social advancements were essential for athens to remain as the main city-state of ancient greece however things were not going to bode well forever for the greeks roughly in the beginning of the mid 16th century bce persia arrived from the east causing many skirmishes and full-scale wars with the greek city-states and bringing more trouble with them to resist the persians even cultures as absolute opposite of spartan athens came together to form a fragile alliance though they aren't actual allies and probably wouldn't remain as such even after things were over the threat posed by the persians was much bigger than their internal pettiness and they were determined to stay united for the course of the conflicts until things were sorted out persia was greece's most determined and pesky adversary fighting them for 100 years to seize control of the anthenyan colony of ionia which is present-day turkey and also attacking the greek mainland in both 490 and 481 bce however the greeks were able to repel them with both victories on the sea and the land and even pushed them back to asia much death and destruction followed suit until 448 bce when persia agreed to a peace treaty and ended conflicts on all fronts then a man named percoles was born an athenian noble he wasn't totally on board with athens pact with sparta seeing them more as an adversary than an ally and was bound to happen the helots rebelled against their spartan masters athens had lent them a hand and sent a force to assist sparta and sparta outright refused the aid and told them they'd handle the matter themselves pericles was completely skeptical of sparta's intentions and also introduced far-reaching democratic reforms in athens he allowed all athenian citizens to vote and to participate in the administration of the state this brings greater equality and civic involvement to the citizens a peace treaty was part of a sign and things were going smooth for a few years until once more sparta decided that it needed to be the most powerful city-state and eventually athens surrendered to sparta in 404 bce however they spared athens due to their service to its fellow city-states and their common enemies despite being taken over by sparta athens remained a center for education literature drama science philosophy and many other paths of education and discovery so how did greece fall it's a combination of things first macedon and then rome macedon at city state gave birth to alexander the great mastodon became the greatest city-state by finally destroying persia and destroying the greater palace of xerxes at around 330 bce athens lost much of its power with the rise of macedon meanwhile in the west rome expanded what is now known as the italian peninsula and sicily with the greeks at their weakest rome managed to easily conquer macedon and the other greek city-states though it decreed that greece is free as long as it remained under roman protection the final nail to greece coffin was the destruction of carthage an outpost of greek influence and the main successor to mastodons and athens power once it was sacked by the romans greece was essentially taken over by the romans and thus it fell to them so what are your thoughts on the rise and fall of the ancient greek civilization let us know in the comments below also make sure to leave us a like share this video with your friends and finally subscribe to history simplified for more videos like today we hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you next time for more