Archaic Greece: Did you mean...?

Greece, the 'cradle of western civilization', is home to a large number of spectacular sites from the ancient world, several of which have been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These sites of great historical...

In the Roman Forum, next to the Temple of Faustina and Antoninus Pius (r. 138-161 CE) and Faustina, along the Via Sacra, 19th Century CE excavators discovered a burial ground dating back to primordial...

Pausanias was a Greek author, historian, and geographer of the 2nd century CE who journeyed extensively throughout Greece, chronicling these travels in his Periegesis Hellados or Description of Greece. His ten volumes of...

The Native Peoples of North America (also known as American Indians, Native Americans, Indigenous Americans, and First Americans) are the original inhabitants of North America believed to have migrated into the region...

The Greek Alphabet developed from the Phoenician script at some point around the 8th century BCE. The earlier Mycenaean Linear B script, used primarily for lists and inventories, had been lost during the Greek Dark Age, and the...

The Cyclades are a group of islands in the southern Aegean situated between the Greek mainland and Turkey. The name was coined in the Archaic period as the islands form an approximate circle (kyklos) around the central and most sacred...

Sparta was one of the most important city-states in ancient Greece and was famous for its military prowess. The professional and well-trained Spartan hoplites with their distinctive red cloaks and long hair were probably the best and...

The Amphictyonic League was an early form of religious council in ancient Greece. It was typically composed of delegates from several tribes or ethnes living in the vicinity of a major, prosperous sanctuary, who then collaborated...

A map showing ancient Greece at the time of Theban hegemony, 371 BCE to 362 BCE.

Epaminondas (or Epameinondas, c. 420 - 362 BCE) was a Theban general who famously defeated Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE. The daring and brilliant pre-meditated tactics of Epaminondas earned a decisive victory over Sparta...