NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The Ancient Greek civilization was located on the same land Greece is now, Ionian Islands, Asia Minor, South Italy, and Sicily. It is surrounded mountains and in the north by water. The Ionian and the Aegean seas, together with natural islands and bays, gave the Greeks the opportunity to develop their high level of commerce and their rich culture. The mountains, which surrounded Greece, gave them the advantage of being well protected. From earlier times, the Geeks lived in independent settlements, and they were isolated from one another.
Later, these settlements grew into bigger cities and / or formed city-states. The Greek civilization has made great contributions in many areas to western society. Greek Scientists have had revolutionary idea that changed its, and our, future dramatically. They also showed that organization and individuality plays a big roll in forming the perfect empire. First I will talk about Sparta, which also played a great part in the history of ancient Greece. Sparta was one of the most powerful city states.
They took over Messnia and used the land wisely, by making a government using the Code of Lycurgus. The Spartan women were given much more freedom, thus every person had a role and part in the flourish ment of their city. The Spartans represented strength, freedom and discipline. They built a great city state well to protect themselves against from revolts and attackers, such as the Persians. Athens, a city state that valued freedom a lot, was filled by people who were open to new ideas and wanted to be educated to become more intelligent.
They were against violence and their to avoid force. Two leading roles of Athens were, Solon and Cleisthenes who changed laws to improve their city and give the people more freedom. They let more male citizens vote and begin a new legal system. Cleisthenes invented lots of laws that gave the government full time democracy. In 520 B. C. , Persian armies attacked and conquered some Greek land and Greek people.
The Athenians wanted back their hard worked for freedom so the aided the Greeks of Ionia against the unpreventable Persian threat. As the war escalated, over 7, 000 Spartans came forward to defend a crucial point, against Xerxes, the Persian leader at that time. The Spartans fought well but could not keep back the immense army of the Persian King. To bring this horrible news to the Greek they had sent a Sprinter who ran for many hours non-stop. This is how the discipline The Marathon came to what it is today in the Olympics. Later the Greek fled into the sea on boats and planned a trap for the evil army.
They managed a surprise attack by ramming the Persian ships thus creating the end of the war. Athens had led the city states to victory, but Greece still suffered the enormous lose the Spartans had. Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, was born in July 356 B. C. in Pella, Macedonia. He was one of the greatest military geniuses in known history, he had every battle planned out to the most crucial detail and left nothing to chance.
His father, Philip II of Macedon, was a brilliant ruler and strategist. As his mother, Olympias, princess of Epirus, was pregnant they could foresee that the child would have the heart of a line and the will of and eagle. Even as a Young boy Alexander was fearless and strong, both physically as also mentally. At the age of 12, he tamed a horse that none other could ride. Alexanders teacher Leonidas taught him the way of the Spartans so he turned into a militaristic machine. As his father Philip was killed, Alexander had removed all those near him that could be a threat to his throne.
This is when Alexanders quest started, he ran over Pelion, Illyria, and then Thebes. Spring 334 Alexander crossed the Dardanelles with an army of 30, 000 men into Asia. He then left his fathers closest friend in charge of Europe with around 13, 000 men. To meet Alexanders great army, the Persians had a force waiting in Asia Minor. Their army was even larger but not better. They planned to get Alexander over the river and then kill his forces, they almost succeeded but heir line broke, and led Alexander to victory.
This victory was an important one since now the doors to Western Asia Minor opened to Macedonia. Most cities surrendered straight away thus completing Alexanders first task of liberating Greek City-States. Alexander conquered the western part of Asia Minor during the winter of 334 - 333. He was in close range of King Darius during the battle of Issus on the Mediterranean coast. Although Alexander was heading South, Darius came in from his north and both sides were surprised to meet up. Darius fled north but Alexander did not follow him, his men were outnumbered 10 to 1.
Alexander took country after country including Syria, Phoenicia, Byblos and Sidon. He did, however, meet serious resistance at Tyre, where he was refused entry into the island city. The Tyrians barricaded themselves in their city and Alexander could not leave them so they would attack his own rear and could not attack by the sea. The simple solution he had was to build a land bridge, which still exists today. After 7 months of hard and brutal naval battle he conquered. In 332 he came into Egypt and they welcomed him as their liberator and founded the city called Alexandria near to the western part of the Nile.
After all this, Alexander chased and killed Darius which led to celebration of defeating the last of the Persian Empire. During his march to India and Afghanistan he crushed everyone of his enemies on the way. The crucial wending point was, however, when his men refused to fight no longer since they had killed and fought nonstop for uncountable months. This made Alexander change his mind and returned back home. On the way home, Alexander, became very sick which soon turned into a deadly virus and killed him.
He died on the 10 th of June 324, ruling 12 years and 8 months, he died at the age of 33. A question was asked just before he had died, To whom do you leave your empire? He replied, To the best (the strongest) and those were his last words. Democracy is a common word now a day. It was also used by the Greeks, though i will explain how we use it. Some synonyms are common wealth, majority rules, and republic.
Words that are not associated with this word are autocracy and autarchy. Autarchy is a government position where one person decides everything and has total power. In this new era, people do not support this way of governing. They, or in other words, we, believe in a system called Democracy. The dictionary definition is as following: Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people. Another Definition is: Collectively, the people, regarded as the source of government.
Simply translated it just means that the government asks the people what they want and most of the time it is done that way. Around one-hundred-twenty countries are trying to become democratic right this very minute. The majority of developed countries are already democratic because it is simply the best solution and is part of this worlds cycle-of-change. The Governments and Politicians days of making unconcerned decisions are over. Though we still need a lot of time to perfect this way of governing, since some Politicians do not do what is best and just go after their own benefits. Eventually we will see that there is only one right way and will do what is best and correct for all of us.
I personally think that Democracy is the best way, but only if the Government does what we want and does not follow through with its own goals and own benefits. Some of the advocates just lack of skill, intuition, and experience in the field of Democracy. If all is done right, the people are happy, and if the people are happy, the country will do good and people will listen and be more open to new ideas that the government might have in store for them. If the Government would just start to realise that they should be doing whats best for its people and country then there would be much less war, fights, and unnecessary discussions in this world. Other Governments that have found out about this should pressure or convince these ignorant people.
Overall, Democracy is good for all of us because we get what we want in the end. There will always be decisions we do not like but this way these unwanted decisions will have been made by the majority of the peoples people. The Greeks definitely were a great folk, they are still highly respected by many but studied by every school. There is absolutely no person on this earth that has never heard a story about Hercules or about Zeus. There is no person that has not been fascinated by the Greek Myths, Architecture and / or Warfare. There people that lived so far back in time are inspiring architects and historians still today.
The Greeks have not stopped influencing our lives and never will. A great Empire, to a great epoch but sadly it does not exist today.
Free research essays on topics related to: asia minor, greek civilization, 000 men, b c, city states
Research essay sample on Greek Civilization Asia Minor
