TheAchaean League, while nominally subject to the Ptolemies was in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league.
In 267 BC, Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Macedon, in what became the Chremonidean War, after the Athenian leader Chremonides. HP Compaq HSTNN-MB05 Battery
The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and her democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest and most cultivated city in Greece. In 225 BC Macedon defeated the Egyptian fleet at Cos and brought the Aegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as well. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB06 Battery
Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC invaded Achaea and seized control of the League. The remaining Acheans preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta, and allied with the former. In 222 BC the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed their city—the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a different state. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB52 Battery
Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus(217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum. HP Compaq HSTNN-OB62 Battery
In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy Carthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power in Asia Minor. The First Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC, and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB05 Battery
In 202 BC, Rome defeated Carthage, and was free to turn her attention eastwards. In 198 BC, the Second Macedonian War broke out because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of the Seleucid Empire, the greatest power in the east. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Cynoscephalae by the Roman proconsul Titus Quinctius Flaminius. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB11 Battery
Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but was otherwise spared. At the Isthmian Games in 196 BC, Flaminius declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth and Chalcis. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB18 Battery
But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were favoured and actively promoted.
Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), HP Compaq HSTNN-UB68 Battery
though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Although the period of Roman rule in Greece is conventionally dated as starting from the sacking of Corinth by the Roman Lucius Mummius in 146 BC, Macedonia had already come under Roman control with the defeat of its king, Perseus, by the Roman Aemilius Paullus at Pydna in 168 BC. HP Compaq HSTNN-UB69 Battery
The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics, and in 146 BC Macedonia officially became a province, with its capital at Thessalonica. The rest of the Greek city-states gradually and eventually paid homage to Rome ending their de jure autonomy as well. The Romans left local administration to the Greekswithout making any attempt to abolish traditional political patterns. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C Battery
The agora in Athens continued to be the centre of civic and political life.
Caracalla's decree in AD 212, the Constitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outside Italy to all free adult men in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-A Battery
The importance of this decree is historical, not political. It set the basis for integration where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied throughout the Mediterranean as was once done from Latium into all Italy. In practice of course, integration did not take place uniformly. HP Compaq HSTNN-W42C-B Battery
Societies already integrated with Rome, such as Greece, were favored by this decree, in comparison with those far away, too poor or just too alien such as Britain, Palestine or Egypt.
Caracalla's decree did not set in motion the processes that led to the transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but rather accelerated them, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB0E Battery
setting the foundations for the millennium-long rise of Greece, in the form of the Eastern Roman Empire, as a major power in Europe and the Mediterraneanin the Middle Ages.
The history of the East Roman or Byzantine Empire is described by Byzantinist August Heisenberg as the history of "the Christianized Roman empire of the Greek nation".[13] HP Compaq HSTNN-XB11 Battery
The division of the empire into East and West and the subsequent collapse of the Western Roman Empire were developments that constantly accentuated the position of the Greeks in the empire and eventually allowed them to become identified with it altogether. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB18 Battery
The leading role of Constantinople began when Constantine the Great turned Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, from then on to be known asConstantinople, placing the city at the center of Hellenism a beacon for the Greeks that lasted to the modern era.
The figures of Constantine the Great and Justinian dominated during 324–610. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB21 Battery
Assimilating the Roman tradition, the emperors sought to offer the basis for later developments and for the formation of the Byzantine Empire. Efforts to secure the borders of the Empire and to restore the Roman territories marked the early centuries. At the same time, the definitive formation and establishment of the Orthodox doctrine, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB24 Battery
but also a series of conflicts resulting from heresies that developed within the boundaries of the empire marked the early period of Byzantine history.
In the first period of the middle Byzantine era (610–867) the empire was attacked both by old enemies (Persians,Lombards, Avars and Slavs) as well as by new ones, appearing for the first time in history (Arabs, Bulgars). HP Compaq HSTNN-XB28 Battery
The main characteristic of this period was that the enemy attacks were not localized to the border areas of the state but they were extended deep beyond, even threatening the capital itself. At the same time, these attacks lost their periodical and temporary character and became permanent settlements that transformed into new states, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB51 Battery
hostile to Byzantium. Those states were referred by the Byzantines as Sclavinias.
Changes were also observed in the internal structure of the empire which was dictated by both external and internal conditions. The predominance of the small free farmers, the expansion of the military estates and the development of the system of themes, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB52 Battery
brought to completion developments that had started in the previous period. Changes were noted also in the sector of administration: the administration and society had become immiscibly Greek, while the restoration of Orthodoxy after the iconoclast movement, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB59 Battery
allowed the successful resumption of missionary action among neighboring peoples and their placement within the sphere of Byzantine cultural influence. During this period the state was geographically reduced and economically damaged, since it lost wealth-producing regions; however, it obtained greater lingual, dogmatic and cultural homogeneity. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB61 Battery
From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the devastating impact of successive invasions, and the reconquest of Greece began. Greeks fromSicily and Asia Minor were brought in as settlers. The Slavs were either driven out or assimilated and the Sclavinias were eliminated. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB62 Battery
By the middle of the 9th century, Greece was Greek again, and the cities began to recover due to improved security and the restoration of effective central control.
When the Byzantine Empire was rescued from a period of crisis by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenoi emperors Alexios, Johnand Manuel in the 12th century, HP Compaq HSTNN-XB68 Battery
Greece prospered. Recent research has revealed that this period was a time of significant growth in the rural economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new agricultural land being brought into production. The widespread construction of new rural churches is a strong indication that prosperity was being generated even in remote areas. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB69 Battery
A steady increase in population led to a higher population density, and there is good evidence that the demographic increase was accompanied by the revival of towns. According to Alan Harvey in his book ‘’Economic expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900–1200’’, towns expanded significantly in the twelfth century. HP Compaq HSTNN-XB85 Battery
Archaeological evidence shows an increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a ‘notable upsurge’ in new towns. Archaeological evidence tells us that many of the medieval towns, including Athens,Thessaloniki, Thebes and Corinth, experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.Sony PCG-31211T Battery
The growth of the towns attracted the Venetians, and this interest in trade appears to have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. Certainly, the Venetians and others were active traders in the ports of the Holy Land, and they made a living out of shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West while also trading extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. Sony PCG-31311T Battery
The 11th and 12th centuries are said to be the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Greece. Many of the most important Byzantine churches in and around Athens, for example, were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of urbanisation in Greece during this period. Sony PCG-51111T Battery
There was also a revival in the mosaic art with artists showing great interest in depicting natural landscapes with wild animals and scenes from the hunt. Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. With its love of luxury and passion for color, Sony PCG-81111T Battery
the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the Christian world.Beautiful silks from the work-shops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling color animals—lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins—confronting each other, or representing Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase. Sony PCG-81311T Battery
The eyes of many patrons were attracted and the economy of Greece grew. In the provinces, regional schools of Architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences. All this suggests that there was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work. Sony VPCF138FC Battery
Yet the marvelous expansion of Byzantine art during this period, one of the most remarkable facts in the history of the empire, did not stop there. From the tenth to the 12th century Byzantium was the main source of inspiration for the West. By their style, arrangement, and iconography the mosaics of St. Sony VPCF219FC Battery
Mark's at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly show their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalu, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, prove the influence of Byzantium οn the Norman Court of Sicily in the 12th century. Sony VPCS135EC Battery
Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East, from which it borrowed not only its decorative forms but the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for instance, by the domed churches of south-western France. Princes of Kiev, Sony VPCS136EC Battery
Venetian doges, abbots ofMonte Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the Norman kings of Sicily all looked to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was the influence of Byzantine art in the 12th century, that Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually became provincial centers dedicated to its production. Sony VPCS138EC Battery
The year 1204 marks the beginning of the late Byzantine period, when probably the most important event for the Empire occurred. Constantinople was lost for the Greek people for the first time, and the empire was conquered by Latin crusaders and would be replaced by a new Latin one, for 57 years. Sony VPCS139GC Battery
In addition, the period of Latin occupation decisively influenced the empire's internal development, as elements of feudality entered aspects of Byzantine life.In 1261 the Greek empire was divided between the former Greek Byzantine Comnenos dynasty members (Epirus) and Palaiologos dynasty (the last dynasty until the fall of Constantinople). Sony VPCYA15EC Battery
After the gradual weakening of the structures of the Greek Byzantine state and the reduction of its land from Turkish invasions, came the fall of the Greek Byzantine Empire, at the hands of the Ottomans, in 1453, when the Byzantine period is considered to have ended.
When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred. Sony VPCYA16EC Battery
The first migration entailed the Greek intelligentsia migrating to Western Europe and influencing the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration entailed Greeks leaving the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettling in the mountains.[14] Sony VPCYA25EC Battery
The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion.
The Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman domination were either Christians who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule or Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith). Sony VPCYA26EC Battery
Some Greeks became Crypto-Christians to avoid heavy taxes and at the same time express their identity by maintaining their ties to the Greek Orthodox Church. However, Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians were deemed Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks, even if they didn't adopt Turkish language. Sony VPCYB15JC Battery
The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century.
In the early months of 1821, the Greeks declared their independence but did not achieve it until 1829. The Great Powers first shared the same view concerning the necessity of preserving the status quo of theOttoman Empire, but soon changed their stance. Sony VPCYA17GH/R Battery
Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause, including Lord Byron.
On 20 October 1827, a combined British, French and Russian naval force destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian armada. The Russian minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, returned home as President of the new Republic. Sony VPCCW2S8E/W Battery
The first capital of the idependent Greece was Aigina (1828–1829) and the second was Nafplio (1828–1834). After his assassination the European powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy; the first King, Otto, came from Bavaria and the second, George I, from Denmark. King Otto, in 1934 transferted the capital to Athens. Sony VPCCW2Z1E/B Battery
During the 19th and early 20th centuries Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire. The Ionian Islands were returned by Britain upon the arrival of the new King George I in 1863 and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery
As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 Epirus, southern Macedonia, Crete and the Aegean Islands were annexed into the Kingdom of Greece. Another enlargement followed in 1947, when Greece annexed the Dodecanese Islands from Italy.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 produced a split in Greek politics, Sony VPCY11S1E/S Battery
with King Constantine I advocating Greece remain neutral, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos pushing for Greece to join on the side of the Allies.[15] The conflict between monarchists and the Venizelists sometimes resulted into open warfare and became known as the National Schism. Sony VPCW1 Battery
Greece eventually sided with the Entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and the other Central Powers.[15]Following the war, the Great Powers agreed that the city of Smyrna (Izmir) and its hinterland, both of which had large Greek populations, be handed over to Greece.[15] Sony VPCW1E8R/BU Battery
Greek troops occupied Smyrna in 1919, and in 1920 the Treaty of Sevres was signed by the Ottoman government, which stipulated that in five years time a plesbicite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece.[15]However, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Sony VPCY11AGJ Battery
overthrew the Ottoman government and organised a military campaign against the Greek troops, resulting in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). A major Greek offensive ground to halt in 1921, and by 1922 the Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna on 9 September 1922, and 4 days afterwards a great fire broke out in the city, incinerating the Greek and Armenian quarters.[15] Sony VPCY11AHJ Battery
The war was concluded by the Treaty of Lausanne, according to which there was to be a population exchange between Greece and Turkey on the basis of religion. Over one million Orthodox Christians left Turkey in exchange for 400,000 Muslims from Greece.[15] The events of 1919–1922 are regarded in Greece as a particularly calamitous period of history. Sony VPCY11AVJ Battery
Between 1914 and 1923, and estimated 750,000[16] to 900,000[17] Greeks died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in what many scholars have termed a genocide.
Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made a decisive contribution to the Alliedefforts in World War II. Sony VPCY11M1E Battery
At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands.Italy invaded Greece by way of Albania on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war. Sony VPCY11S1E Battery
Primarily to secure his strategic southern flank, German dictator Adolf Hitler reluctantly stepped in and launched theBattle of Greece. Troops from Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, through Yugoslavia, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units. Sony VPCY11V9E Battery
On 20 May 1941, the Germans attempted to seize Crete with a large attack by paratroops—with the aim of reducing the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt—but faced heavy resistance. The Greek campaign might have delayed German military plans against Soviet Union, Sony VPCY11V9E/S Battery
and it is argued that had the German invasion of the Soviet Union started on 20 May 1941 instead of 22 June 1941, the Nazi assault against the Soviet Union might have succeeded. The heavy losses of German paratroopers led the Germans to launch no further large-scale air-invasions. Sony VPCY219FJ/S Battery
During the years of Occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany, thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many other Christian Greeks to shelter the Jews. The economy of Greece was devastated. Sony VPCY21AFJ Battery
When the Soviet Army began its drive across Romania in August 1944, the German Army in Greece began withdrawing north and northwestward from Greece intoYugoslavia and Albania to avoid being cut off in Greece. Hence, the German occupation of Greece ended in October 1944. Sony VPCY21AGJ Battery
The Resistance ELAS seized control of Athens on 12 October 1944. British troops had already landed on 4 October in Patras, and entered Athens at 14 October 1944.
The Greek Civil War (Greek: Eμφύλιος πόλεμος Emfílios pólemos), was fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the Governmental forces of Greece supported by the United Kingdom at first, and later by the USA, and the Democratic Army of Greece; Sony VPCY21AHJ Battery
the military branch of the Greek communist party. According to some analysts, it represented the first example of a post-war West interference in the political situation of a foreign country.[24] The victory of the British—and later US-supported government forces led to Greece's membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean for the entire Cold War. Sony VPCY21AVJ Battery
The civil war consisted on one side of the armed forces of the postwar non-Marxist Greek administrations, and on the other, communist-led forces, and key members of the former resistance organization (ELAS), the leadership of which was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Sony VPCY21S1E/L Battery
The first phase of the civil war occurred in 1942–1944. Marxist and non-Marxist resistance groups fought each other in a fratricidal conflict to establish the leadership of the Greek resistance movement. In the second phase (1944) the ascendant communists, in military control of most of Greece, Sony VPCY21S1E/P Battery
confronted the returning Greek government in exile, which had been formed under Western Allied auspices in Cairo and originally included six KKE-affiliated ministers. In the third phase (commonly called the "Third Round" by the Communists) (1946–1949), guerrilla forces controlled by KKE fought against the internationally recognized Greek Government which was formed after elections boycotted by KKE. Sony VPCY21S1E/SI Battery
Although the involvement of KKE in the uprisings was universally known, the party remained legal until 1948, continuing to coordinate attacks from its Athens offices until proscription.
The civil war left Greece with a legacy of political polarization; as a result, Greece also entered into alliance with the United States and joined NATO, while relationships with its Communist northern neighbours, both pro-Soviet and neutral, became strained. Sony VPCCW1E8R/WU Battery
In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece developed rapidly, initially with the help of the U.S. Marshall Plan's grants and loans, and later through growth in the tourismsector. New attention was given to women's rights, and in 1952 suffrage for women was guaranteed in the Constitution, full Constitutional equality following, Sony VPCCW1S1E Battery
and Lina Tsaldari becoming the first female minister that decade.
In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d'état, overthrew the centre right government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.[25] It established the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 which became known as the Régime of the Colonels. Sony VPCCW1S1R Battery
In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy. In 1974, dictator Papadopoulosdenied help to the U.S. After a second coup that year, Colonel Ioannides was appointed as the new head-of-state.
Ioannides was responsible for the 1974 coup against President Makarios of Cyprus.[26] Sony VPCCW1S1T Battery
The coup became the pretext for the first wave of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 (see Greco-Turkish relations). The Cyprus events and the outcry following a bloody suppression of Athens Polytechnic uprising in Athens led to the implosion of the military régime. An exiled politician, Sony VPCCW1S1T/R Battery
Konstantinos Karamanlis, returned and became interim prime minister on July 23, 1974[27] and later gained re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party. In August 1974, Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Sony VPCCW1S1T/W Battery
In 1974, a referendum voted 69%–31% to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II. A democratic republican constitution came into force.[29] Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded the socialist Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, which won the elections in 1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades.[30] Sony VPCCW1Z4E Battery
Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic prosperity of Greece have grown remarkably. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980. Greece joined theEuropean Union in 1981 and adopted the euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, Sony VPCCW12EN/BU Battery
shipping, services, light industry and the telecommunications industry have brought Greeks an unprecedented standard of living. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea but relations have considerably thawed following successive earthquakes—Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E Battery
first in Turkey and then in Greece—and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks (see Earthquake Diplomacy).
From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece's ability to meet its debt obligations due to strong increase ingovernment debt levels.[ Sony VAIO VGN-FW139N Battery
This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and risk insurance on credit default swapscompared to other countries, most importantly Germany.[33][34] Downgrading of Greek government debt to junk bonds created alarm in financial markets. Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E Battery
On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund agreed on a €110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures.
In October 2011, Eurozone leaders also agreed on a proposal to write off 50% of Greek debt owed to private creditors, Sony VAIO VGN-FW145E Battery
increasing the EFSF to about €1 trillion and requiring European banks to achieve 9% capitalization to reduce the risk of contagion to other countries. These austerity measures have proved extremely unpopular with the Greek public, precipitating demonstrations and civil unrest. Sony VAIO VGN-FW160E Battery
Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 BC – c. 1100 BC) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It takes its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece; other important sites of this period are Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns. Sony VAIO VGN-FW180E Battery
It is the historical setting of much ancient Greek literature and myth, including the epics of Homer.
Mycenaean civilization flourished between roughly 1600 BC, when Helladic culture in mainland Greece was transformed under influences from Minoan Crete, and 1100 BC, when it perished with the collapse of Bronze-Age civilization in the eastern Mediterranean. Sony VAIO VGN-FW190E Battery
The collapse is commonly attributed to the Dorian invasion, although other theories describing natural disasters and climate change have been advanced as well. The major Mycenaean cities were Mycenae and Tirynsin Argolis, Pylos in Messenia, Athens in Attica, Thebes and Orchomenus in Boeotia, and Iolkos in Thessaly. Sony VAIO VPCS11B7E Battery
In Crete, the Mycenaeans occupied Knossos. Mycenaean settlement sites also appeared in Epirus,[2][3] Macedonia,[4][5] on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant,[6] Cyprus[7] and Italy.[8][9] Mycenaean artifacts have been found well outside the limits of the Mycenaean world: namely Sony VAIO VPCS11M1E/W Battery
Mycenaean swords are known from as far away as Georgiain the Caucasus,[10] an amber object inscribed with Linear B symbols has been found in Bavaria, Germany[11] and Mycenaean bronze double axes and other objects dating from 13th century BC have been found in Ireland and in Wessexand Cornwall in England. Sony VAIO VPCS11M9R/B Battery
Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control to Crete, center of the Minoan civilization (which had been crippled by the eruption of Santorini), Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E/B Battery
and adopted a form of the Minoan script (called Linear A) to write their early form of Greek in Linear B.
Not only did the Mycenaeans defeat the Minoans, but according to later Hellenic legend they defeated Troy, presented in epic as a city-state that rivaled Mycenae in power. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7E Battery
Because the only evidence for the conquests is Homer's Iliad and other texts steeped in mythology, the existence of Troy and the historicity of the Trojan War is uncertain. In 1876, the German archaeologistHeinrich Schliemann uncovered ruins at Hissarlik in western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) that he claimed were those of Troy. Sony VAIO VPCS12A7R Battery
Some sources claim these ruins do not match well with Homer's account of Troy,[16] but others disagree.[17]
The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholos tombs), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and a straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. Sony VAIO VPCS12B7E Battery
The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification, whereas Homer's Achilles and Patroclus were not buried but cremated, in Iron-Age fashion, and honoured with a gold urn, instead of gold masks. Sony VAIO VPCS12C5E Battery
No Mycenaean priestly class has yet been identified. Worshiper and worshiped are identified in seals, rings and votive figures through their gestures: worshipers fold their arms, or raise the right arm in greeting, or place a hand on the forehead. Deities lift both arms in the "epiphany gesture" or reach forward to give or receive. Sony VAIO VPCS12D7E Battery
Thepantheon of Mycenaean deities has been reassembled from inscriptions in Linear B found at Pylos and at post-palatial Mycenaean Knossos in Crete. Some of the deities' names are recognizably present in the Olympic pantheon of written myth. Others are not: Ares, the god of war for example, Sony VAIO VPCS11V9E Battery
is represented only as "Enyalios" (e-nu-wa-ri-jo ) which was retained as an epithet. Pa-ja-wo ("Paian") is an alternative name of Apollo, if not a separate god. Far more prominent are A-ta-na po-ti-ni-ja (Athena Potnia, "Athena the Mistress", a form similar with the later Homeric form), Sony VAIO VPCS11X9E Battery
E-re-u-ti-ja (Eileithyia), later merely invoked during childbirth, andErinus (Erinyes) or furies. Poseidon (Po-se-da-o) already the "Earth-Shaker" (E-ne-si-da-o-ne) with his consort "Poseidia", who was not retained in the transition to Classical Greece. At Pylos, he appears as the king (wa-na-ka:"Fanax") Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery
with the "Two Queens" (wa-na-ssoi) who may be related with Demeter and Persephone. We find also the inscriptions a-te-mi-to do-e-ro ( servant of the godess Artemis), a-pa-i-ti-jo ( probably Hephaistos), Qo-wi-ja ( cow eyed), an Homeric epithet for Hera.[18] Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery
Around 1100 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked, and the region entered what historians describe as a dark age for its lack of inscriptions, with some Mycenaeans fleeing to Cyprus as well as other Greek islands and coastal parts of Anatolia. During this period, Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery
Greece experienced decreasing population and the limited literacy, connected with bureaucrats of palace culture, disappeared. Historians have traditionally blamed this decline on an invasion or uprising by another wave of Greek people, the Dorians, who may have been a subjugated local people, although Pylos was probably destroyed by sea peoples.[19] Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery
Alternate theories for the decline also include natural disasters such as a series of earthquakes or large-scale drought, although these recent theories are more controversial.
From a chronological perspective, the Late Helladic period (LH, 1550–1060 BC) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery
Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work in Linear B, a syllabic script recognizable as a form of Greek. LH is divided into I, II, and III; of which I and II overlap Late Minoan ware and III overtakes it. LH III is further subdivided into IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery
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