Classical Greece
▶ Explore on the mapClassical Greece is the period between the Athenian democratic reforms of Cleisthenes in 508 BCE and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, during which the Greek city-states shaped the political, artistic and intellectual traditions of the western world. Athens developed radical democracy in which citizens served in the assembly and were chosen by lot for most offices, though women, slaves and resident foreigners were excluded; Sparta by contrast maintained a dual kingship, a council of elders and a citizen army trained from childhood. The two systems collided in the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BCE, which Athens lost and which weakened every Greek state. The same centuries produced tragedy and comedy on the Athenian stage, the marble temples of the Acropolis under Pericles, the sculpture of Phidias, and histories from Herodotus and Thucydides. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle founded the philosophical traditions that dominated European thought, while Hippocrates separated medicine from religion and Pythagoras and his followers studied number. Greek colonies dotted the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, spreading the language and the alphabet. Philip of Macedon's victory at Chaeronea in 338 BCE ended the independence of the city-states, and Alexander's conquests carried their culture as far as India.