The History and Legacy of Ancient Greece’s Most Influential City-States

Summary

Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons: its political system, which would in time form the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of government, and the remarkable number of outstanding individuals which, during the Golden Age of Athens, lived and flourished in the enlightened city-state. The Ancient Athenians formed the backbone of the West’s entire culture, from the arts to philosophy and everything in between.

The most unique city-state in Ancient Greece was Sparta, which continues to fascinate contemporaneous society. It is not entirely clear why Sparta placed such a great emphasis on having a militaristic society, but the result was that military fitness was a preoccupation from birth.

In the Archaic and Classical periods, Rhodes often stood as a prime exemplar of the highs and lows of its fellow Greek cities, and as the largest island of the Dodecanese, Rhodes’ history is largely in line with that of the rest of those islands. Rhodes would reach the zenith of its power in the Hellenistic period following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.

Modern perceptions of Classical Greece are almost invariably based on Athens and Sparta, but Thebes was also a key player in the history of the region in this pivotal period. Indeed, it was, in fact, Thebes that was the major power for many of the years preceding the emergence of Macedon. The reasons for so little being known about Thebes and its contributions to ancient Greek civilization are complex, but the fact that it was totally destroyed by Alexander the Great is certainly one.

Ancient Corinth had actually been founded in the 10th century B.C. and was, for most of its history, the richest port and the largest city in all of Greece. Corinth had a population in excess of 90,000 in 400 B.C., but the Romans leveled this original city in 146 B.C., killing all the male inhabitants and selling the women and children into slavery.