Overview of ancient Greece | World History | Khan Academy

- [Salman] I am now
going to give an overview

of ancient Greece.

In future videos we're gonna
go into a lot more depth

on a lot of these events and ideas.

But this one is to give you
context on the big picture.

And just to start, let's
begin with the name Greece.

It turns out that the Greeks do not call

where they live, Greece,
neither did the ancient Greeks.

They called it Hellas.

Hellas, Hellas.

And the word Hellas comes from Hellen,

so this comes from Hellen,

which is this legendary
figure who is viewed

as a progenitor of the Greek people.

You could kind of view him

as the father of the Greek people.

And it's not well established
in the historical record

when Hellen actually existed,

but this is where we get
the name Hellas from.

And it's very important.

Do not confuse this Hellen, who was a man,

with Helen of Troy.

Helen of Troy was a different person.

When I was a child and I
heard about Hellenic things

or the Hellenic period, or the Hellenes,

I was like, oh,

maybe that's something
to do with Helen of Troy.

No.

That's referring to the
Greek progenitor Hellen.

And so that's where the
word Hellas comes from,

and ideas like Hellenes,
which is the Greek people.

Or Hellenic, which is referring
to something that is Greek,

or the Hellenistic Period,

which we'll talk about
many videos from now,

which is this period of Greek influence.

Not just over Greece and
the Anatolian Peninsula,

but over Persia and over Egypt.

So with that out of the way,

let's now talk about
the big arc of history

of ancient Greece.

And it's believed that the Greek Peninsula

has been settled by human beings

for thousands and thousands of years.

And as time goes on we'll
hopefully understand

more and more about them.

But my timeline right over here

starts with Mycenaean Greece,

or it starts with the
end of Mycenaean Greece.

In other videos we might talk more

about the Mycenaean Empire.

And as that empire falls,

we enter into the Greek Dark Ages.

And the reason why it's
called the Dark Ages,

is there's not a lot of
historical record of this period

roughly between 1100BCE and 800BCE.

Now there's one event,

and I'll kind of say that
with a slight emphasis

or a question that is worth noting here.

I have Trojan War question
mark around 1200BCE.

Once again, there's not
a strong historic record

for the Trojan War,
but it is a famous war,

that was chronicled by Homer.

And even Homer, we don't
know if he really existed,

or whether he was an
entire literary tradition.

But it was chronicled in the Iliad

in the aftermath in the Odyssey.

And once again,

this was chronicled many
hundreds of years later,

and even Homer is a semi-legendary figure.

But when people talk about the Trojan Wars

or you see movies about it,

we're talking about something that,

if it happened the way it happened,

it's on the order of 1200BCE.

Now as we exit the Greek Dark Ages,

that's when we start to have
some of the institutions

that really, that we now
identify with the ancient Greeks,

get established.

You have the Oracle at Delphi.

The Oracle of Delphi, or Pythia,

often known as the Oracle of Delphi.

This is where leaders
of the Greek city-states

went for direction to understand
what was likely to happen,

to get prophecies.

And this institution,
the Oracle at Delphi,

lasts through this entire
period I have on my timeline,

into Roman rule, for over 1000 years,

where the Oracle at Delphi is
a very, very prominent figure

in influencing Greek leaders.

At around the same time, you
also have the Olympic Games,

where they're held at Olympia,

where people compete to
show their athletic prowess.

And this ancient Olympic Games once again,

it continues on for over 1000 years.

Our modern Olympics are just
kind of a flash in the pan,

and it was obviously modeled
after the ancient Olympics,

compared to how long this lasted.

Now when most people think of Greece,

they're actually talking
about classical Greece.

So this is the Classical
Period right over here.

And we're gonna do videos
on a lot of these events,

but it's roughly the period
between the Persian invasions

that were successfully put off,

and the rise of Alexander
and the fall of Alexander.

And that's where you
have all of these ideas

of Greek democracy really
kind of coming to the surface.

Pericles, the Strategos of Athens,

who had the influence to
really help democracy flourish.

Under his leadership, or
during his leadership,

you have the Acropolis and the Parthenon,

these famous icons of Greek
culture being established.

But once again, this is in this period.

That's in this period right over here.

This is also the period that we associate

with the famous Greek philosophers.

These lines right over here

are the lives of Socrates and Plato,

who is Socrates' student,

established the famous academy.

Aristotle who was Plato's student

and famous tutor of Alexander the Great.

Now as I mentioned, you
had these city-states,

and the ones that are worth mentioning,

all of them are worth mentioning.

But I have in this diagram,

the most significant
city-states of ancient Greece

that you'll hear a lot about.

We talked about the Oracle at Delphi,

the Olympic Games at Olympia.

A lot of the conversation
tends to focus around Sparta

and around Athens.

And then you'll also hear a
lot about Corinth and Thebes.

Sparta is famous for its
militaristic society.

It's often glorified.

But it's also worth noting that they were

significant slave owners.

At different parts in Spartan history,

they had somewhere between
seven and 20 slaves

for every Spartan.

Athens is famous for its philosophy.

It's famous for the
birthplace of democracy.

It's famous for its art, it's
famous for its architecture,

all of these areas are
famous for its architecture.

But it's also worth noting
that during the Golden Age,

and you have the Athenian Empire,

they were also pretty brutal
in putting down rebellion

and in some ways subjugating
different people.

So it depends how you want to view things.

And we're gonna have a lot of videos

on all of these things.

But at that time, we talk
about these city-states,

even though they shared a common language

and common culture,

they sent folks to the Olympic games,

they went to the Oracle of Delphi,

they were independent states.

And it wasn't until you
have Philip of Macedonia

in the fourth century right over here,

where he starts to really
unify these Greek city-states,

and it culminates with his
son, Alexander the Great.

And Alexander the Great
not only unifies Greece,

but he takes over the Persian Empire,

and really kind of with his death,

and he has a very short life,

he ushers in the Hellenistic period,

where you have Greek culture influencing

that entire region.

Not only Greece, not only
what was the Persian Empire,

the Middle East, Egypt,

that whole region gets
influenced by Greek culture.

And Greece, I guess you
could say, at the end,

finally gets under Roman control,

and it depends which
date you wanna use it.

In the middle of the second century BCE

is when Greece itself falls to Rome,

but then other parts of,
I guess you could say,

the Hellenistic world,
finally succumb to Rome.

For example, Ptolemaic Egypt
in the first century BCE.

But even then,

even when it becomes
part of the Roman Empire,

it influences the Roman Empire
very, very, very heavily.

Now other things that you
will hear us talk about

when we discuss the Greeks,

besides the democracy and the philosophy,

we're gonna talk a lot about wars.

And it's worth noting what
Greek warriors looked like.

So this is a depiction of Hoplites,

which are Greek citizen
soldiers in ancient Greece.

And you'll also here about a phalanx.

A phalanx is a formation where they walked

or they marched very tightly together.

And when archers came they
would put all their shields up,

and they'd almost be
like this armored tank.

And it was a very effective
method of warfare.

Another word that you will hear associated

with Sparta and those slaves is Helots.

Those were the names of those slaves.

They weren't owned by individuals,

they were actually owned by the state.

Now some of the other cities here,

Corinth, will come up a lot.

It has a very strategic location

in the Isthmus of Corinth.

Notice to get from the mainland,

or I guess into the
Peloponnesian Peninsula,

you have to go through this Isthmus.

Thebes right here was a
significant rival to Athens

at different periods of Greek history.

It was the dominant city.

Now the last thing I wanna mention

is there is a ton of culture
that comes from the Greeks,

and a lot of words that we even use today.

For example, the word draconian,

which is used for something
that's very harsh.

Well that comes from Draco's law,

which came in the seventh
century BCE from Athens.

He was an Athenian legislator

who composed a very harsh series of laws.

That's where the word
draconian comes from.

When people say something is spartan,

they kind of imagine it's
something that's very basic

or you just have the necessities.

And it comes from the
idea of Spartan culture

that they really,

everything revolved
around military necessity.

Even the word laconic,

which means someone who says just enough

to get their meaning across.

It comes from the region
where Sparta is, Laconia.

The Spartans were famous for their kind of

very terse speech.

Famously, when Philip of Macedon

was threatening the Spartans,

and he's saying, "If you
don't come on to my side

"I'm going to do this and that to you

"if you don't become part
of my kingdom, my empire,

"I'm going to do this to your city,

"I'm going to do that to your people."

And the Spartan's famous reply was, "If."

which is kind of a good
example of laconic speech.

With that one word they
were able to convey a lot.

So I'm going to leave you there.

In the next few videos,

we're going to go into some depth on this.

But it's important to realize

that when people talk
about ancient Greece,

they're talking about a
large span of history,

and most of what we associate
with ancient Greece,

the Acropolis, the
Parthenon, the Persian Wars,

the great Greek philosophers,

most of that is associated
with the classical period,

often associated with the Golden Age.

Which is right around there.

Well before this period,

the Greeks weren't all these philosophers

sitting around in togas.

They might've been wearing togas,

but at these earlier periods

they were more adventurers and conquerors,

and they might have
been in small villages.

And eventually those
evolved into the city-states

that especially in Athens and Sparta

had their Golden Age in
this period right over here.