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The classical period of Ancient Greece,
corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries
B.C. (i.e. from the fall of the Athenian tyranny in
510 BC to the death of Alexander the Great in 323
BC).
In 510, Spartan troops helped the Athenians
overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of
Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in
place a pro-Spartan oligarchy conducted by Isagoras.
The Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC), concluded by
the Peace of Callias resulted in the dominant
position of Athens in the Delian League, which led
to conflict with Sparta and the Peloponnesian
League, resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404
BC), ending in a Spartan victory.
Greece entered the 4th century under Spartan
hegemony. But by 395 BC the Spartan rulers removed
Lysander from office, and Sparta lost her naval
supremacy. Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth, the
latter two formerly Spartan allies, challenged
Spartan dominance in the Corinthian War, which ended
inconclusively in 387 BC. Then the Theban generals
Epaminondas and Pelopidas won a decisive victory at
Leuctra (371 BC). The result of this battle was the
end of Spartan supremacy and the establishment of
Theban hegemony. Thebes sought to maintain its
position until finally eclipsed by the rising power
of Macedon in 346 BC.
Under Philip II, (359–336 BC), Macedon expanded into
the territory of the Paionians, Thracians, and
Illyrians. Philip's son Alexander the Great (356–323
BC) managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not
only over the central Greek city-states, but also to
the Persian empire, including Egypt and lands as far
east as the fringes of India. The classical period
conventionally ends at the death of Alexander in 323
BC and the fragmentation of his empire, divided
among the Diadochi. |
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