About
2,500 years ago, the people of Greece introduced many valuable ideas and
developed a civilization that influences the way we live today. The ancient
Greeks attempted to explain the world through the laws of nature. They
developed democracy, where people govern themselves instead of being ruled by
a king. They made important discoveries in science. The Greeks also valued
beauty and imagination. They wrote many stories and plays that continue to be
performed more than 2,000 years later.
Greece is a small, rocky peninsula in
southeastern Europe. The people of ancient Greece could not farm most of their
mountainous land, so they turned to
the sea. They became excellent sailors who traveled to distant lands. The
learned the alphabet from the Phoenicians, a sea faring people from modern day
Syria and Lebanon.
Today there is a modern nation known as Greece, but ancient Greece was not a nation. It was a group of city-states, or nations the size of cities. A Greek city-state was known as a polis, and a group of city-states were known as poli. The Greek poli developed independently of one another because they were isolated by rugged mountains or were located on small islands. The poli often developed alliances, called leagues, for protection against other city-states and foreign invaders. Two of the most important Greek poli were Athens and Sparta.
