Ancient Greece: Geography and Its Impact on Civilization

Ancient Greece consisted mainly of a mountainous peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea. It is about 2,000 islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas. Lands on the eastern edge of the Aegean were also part of ancient Greece. The region’s physical geography directly shaped Greek traditions and customs.

Geography 

The sea influenced Greek civilization. You could say that the Greeks did not live on land but around the sea. Greeks rarely had to travel more than 80 miles to reach the coastline. The Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, and the Black Sea were important transportation routes for the Greek people. These seaways connected most parts of Greece. As the Greeks became experienced sailors, sea travel connected Greece with other societies. Sea travel and trade were important because Greece lacked natural resources, such as precious metals, timber, and usable farmland and this lack of resources contributed to the need for expansion which led to war.

Much of the land itself was full of stones, and only a small part of it was good for farming. Small, but fertile valleys covered about 25 percent of Greece. The small streams that watered these valleys were not appropriate for large irrigation projects. With so little fertile farmland or fresh water for irrigation, Greece was never able to support a large population. Historians estimate that no more than a few million people lived in ancient Greece at any given time.

Sometime after 1500 B.C., through either trade or war, the Mycenaeans came into contact with the Minoan civilization. From their contact with the Minoans, the Mycenaeans saw the value of the seaborne trade. Mycenaean traders soon sailed throughout the eastern Mediterranean, making stops at Aegean islands, coastal towns in Anatolia, and ports in Italy, Egypt, Syria, and Crete. The Minoans also influenced the Mycenaeans in other ways. The Mycenaeans adapted the Minoan writing system to the Greek language. The culture of Mycenae soon formed the core of Greek religious practice, art, politics, and literature.

Troy

During the 1200s B.C., the Mycenaeans fought a ten-year war against Troy, an independent trading city located in Anatolia. According to legend, a Greek army besieged and destroyed Troy because a Trojan prince had kidnapped Helen, the beautiful wife of a Greek king. Historians thought that the legendary stories told of the Trojan War were made up. But, excavations in Turkey during the 1870s by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann suggested that the stories of the Trojan War might have been based on real cities, people, and events. More archaeological studies in the 20th-century support Schliemann’s findings. So even if the reason of the Trojan War remains unclear, this attack on Troy was almost certainly one of the last Mycenaean battle campaigns

Greeks thought that it was important to develop and train the body, so part of each day was spent in athletic activities. Older boys went to military school to help them get ready for another important duty of citizenship, which was defending Athens.

Sparta

Sparta was located in the southern part of Greece known as the Peloponnesus, Sparta was mostly cut off from the rest of Greece by the Gulf of Corinth. Sparta’s values were very different from the other city-states especially when compared to Athens. Athens built a democracy and Sparta built a military state. Around 725 b.c., Sparta conquered the neighboring region of Messenia and took over the land. The Messenians became helots or peasants forced to stay on the land they worked. Each year, the Spartans demanded half of the helots' crops. In about 650 b.c., the Messenians, angry with the Spartans' harsh rule, revolted. The Spartans, who were outnumbered eight to one, just barely put down the revolt. Shocked at their vulnerability, they dedicated themselves to making Sparta a strong city-state. From around 600 until 371 B.C., Sparta had the most powerful army in Greece. But, the Spartan people paid a high price for their military supremacy. Spartans valued duty, strength, and discipline over freedom, individuality, beauty, and learning.

Spartan men were expected to serve in the army until the age of 60, and their daily life centered on military training. Boys left home when they were 7 and moved into army barracks, where they stayed until they reached the age of 30. They spent their days marching, exercising, and fighting. They undertook these activities in all weathers, wearing only light tunics and no shoes. At night, they slept without blankets on hard benches. Their daily diet consisted of little more than a bowl of coarse black porridge. Those who were still hungry were encouraged to steal food.

Such training produced tough and resourceful soldiers. Spartan girls also led hardy lives. They received some military training, and they also ran, wrestled, and played sports. Like boys, girls were taught to put service to Sparta above everything, even the love of family.

The danger of a helot revolt led Sparta to become a military state. Struggles between the rich and poor led Athens to become a democracy. The biggest danger of all an invasion by Persian armies moved Sparta and Athens to their greatest glory.

Iron Age

During the Dorian Age, only the rich could afford shields, bronze spears, breastplates, and chariots. So, only the rich served in armies. Iron later replaced bronze in the manufacture of weapons. Bonze wasn't as hard of iron which was more common and therefore cheaper. Soon, ordinary citizens could afford to arm and defend themselves. This shift from bronze to iron weapons made a new kind of army possible composed not only of the rich but also of artisans, merchants, and small landowners. The foot soldiers of this army, called hoplites, stood side by side, each holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. This phalanx became the most powerful fighting force in the ancient world.

The Persian Wars, between Greece and the Persian Empire, began in Ionia on the coast of Anatolia. The Greeks had long been settled there, but around 546 B.C., the Persians conquered the area and the Ionian Greeks revolted, Athens sent ships and soldiers to their aid. The Persian king Darius the Great defeated the rebels and then vowed to destroy Athens in revenge. In 490 B.C., a Persian fleet carried 25,000 men across the Aegean Sea and landed northeast of Athens on a plain called Marathon. There, 10,000 Athenians, neatly arranged in phalanxes, waited for them. Vastly outnumbered, the Greek soldiers charged. The Persians, who wore light armor and lacked training in this kind of land combat, were no match for the disciplined Greek phalanx. After several hours, the Persians fled the battlefield. The Persians lost more than 6,000 men. Athenian casualties were fewer than 200.

Though the Athenians won the battle, their city now stood defenseless. Moving quickly from Marathon, the Greek army arrived in Athens not long after. When the Persians sailed into the harbor, they found the city heavily defended. They quickly put to sea in retreat.

Ten years later, in 480 B.C., Darius the Great’s son and successor, Xerxes, put together an enormous invasion force to crush Athens. The Greeks were badly divided. Some city-states agreed to fight the Persians. Others thought it wiser to let Xerxes destroy Athens and return home. Some Greeks even fought on the Persian side. Consequently, Xerxes’ army met no resistance as it marched down the eastern coast of Greece. When Xerxes came to a narrow mountain pass at Thermopylae, 7,000 Greeks, including 300 Spartans, blocked his way. Xerxes assumed that his troops would easily push the Greeks aside.

However, he underestimated their fighting ability. The Greeks stopped the Persian advance for three days. Only a traitor informing the Persians about a secret path around the pass ended their brave stand. Fearing defeat, the Spartans held the Persians back while the other Greek forces retreated. The Spartans’ valiant sacrifice as all were killed, made a great impression on all Greeks. Meanwhile, the Athenians debated how best to defend their city. Themistocles, an Athenian leader, convinced them to evacuate the city and fight at sea. They positioned their fleet in a narrow channel near the island of Salamis, a few miles southwest of Athens. After setting fire to Athens, Xerxes sent his warships to lock both ends of the channel. However, the channel was very narrow, and the Persian ships had difficulty turning. Smaller Greek ships armed with battering rams attacked, puncturing the hulls of many Persian warships. Xerxes watched in horror as more than one-third of his fleet sank. He faced another defeat in 479 B.C. when the Greeks crushed the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea. After this major setback, the Persians were always on the defensive.

The following year, several Greek city-states formed an alliance called the Delian. League members continued to press the war against the Persians for several more years. In time, they drove the Persians from the territories surrounding Greece and ended the threat of future attacks.

Conclusion

With the Persian threat ending, all the Greek city-states felt a new sense of confidence and freedom. Athens, in particular, basked in the glory of the Persian defeat. During the 470s, Athens emerged as the leader of the Delian League, which had grown to some 200 city-states. Soon thereafter, Athens began to use its power to control the other league members. It moved the league headquarters to Athens and used military force against members that challenged its authority. In time, these city-states became little more than provinces of a vast Athenian empire. The prestige of victory over the Persians and the wealth of the Athenian empire set the table for an enormous burst of creativity in Athens.