This site provides useful information and resources about
GreeK History and Civilization. It is difficult to imagine what the world would be like without Greece. Much of our philosophy, art, literature and outlook on life was shaped by the Greek Golden Age, when a few million Greeks on a thousands of largely barren islands transformed the world.
Internal fighting and external enemies meant that Greece would not survive long as an independent nation. Greece was conquered by Rome, which recognized in Greece its superior in art, philosophy and culture. In time the Romans adopted Greek culture to such an extent that it is impossible to study the Roman Empire without also studying Greek history and culture and how the Greek's influenced the course of the Empire.
When the Empire was in decline, it split into two halves, the Roman Western half and the Eastern Half governed from Byzantium and dominated by Greek language and culture.
The so called Greek Empire (or Byzantine Empire) survived for over 1000 years after the fall of Rome. Incredibly, the Roman Empire, founded in the depths of antiquity, finally died under the artillery barrages of the Ottoman Turks as their guns ringed the ancient capital of Constantinople.
It is a testament to the melding of Greek and Roman cultures that even though we regard the Byzantine empire as Greek civilization the Byzantines themselves referred to themselves as "Romans" and to their Empire as the Roman Empire.
In this section we have assembled a growing selection of texts by classical Greek authors as well as text books about Greek history and life in Classical Greece.
