Thehistory of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state ofGreece as well as that of theGreek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result, the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes.
Generally, the history of Greece is divided into the following periods:
Prehistoric Greece:
PaleolithicGreece, starting circa 2 million years ago and ending in 20,000 BC. Significantgeomorphological and climatic changes occurred in the modern Greek area which were definitive for the development offauna andflora and the survival ofHomo sapiens in the region.
Mesolithic Greece, starting in 13,000 BC and ending around 7,000 BC, was a period of long and slow development of primitive human "proto-communities".
Modern Greece covers the period from 1821 to the present.
At its cultural and geographical peak, Greek civilization spread fromEgypt all the way to theHindu Kush mountains inAfghanistan. Since then, Greek minorities have continued to inhabit former Greek territories (e.g.Turkey,Albania,Italy,Libya,Levant,Armenia,Georgia), and Greek emigrants have assimilated into differing societies across the globe (e.g., North America, Australia, Northern Europe,South Africa). At present, most Greeks live in the modern states of Greece (independent since 1821) andCyprus.
ThePaleolithic period is generally understudied in Greece because research has traditionally focused on the later parts of prehistory (Neolithic, Bronze Age) and the Classical times. Nevertheless, significant advances have been achieved over recent years, and the archaeological record has been enriched with new material, collected mostly in the framework of regional surveys but also through systematic orrescue excavations. New caves androck shelters, as well as recently discovered and important open-air sites are now being excavated.[5] Scholars believe Greece was first occupied between 1.5 and 2.5 million years ago when early members of the genusHomo began to spread across Eurasia. However, no definitive evidence of habitation this primitive has been discovered yet.[6] The earliest undisputed traces of hominin habitation in the country so far were unearthed inArcadia,Peloponnesus and date back 700,000 years.[7] TheApidima Cave inMani, southern Greece, contains the oldest known remains ofanatomically modern humans outside ofAfrica, dated to 210,000 years ago.[8][9][10] Currently known anthropological and archaeological finds allow the division of the Paleolithic in the Greek area into Lower (700,000–100,000 BP), Middle (100,000–35,000 BP) and Upper Palaeolithic (35,000–11,000 BP).[11] There are, to date, few sites of the Lower Paleolithic, whereas there are more of the Middle and Upper. This is partly due to the intensetectonic activity in the Greek area and the rise and fall of theAegean Sea which destroyed every trace of habitation from some geographical regions.[5]
Paleolithic finds from Greece were first reported in 1867, but the first organized research on the sites was conducted many years later, between 1927 and 1931, by the Austrian archaeologist Adalbert Markovits. The first excavation of a Paleolithic site took place in 1942 at Seidi Cave inBoeotia by the German archaeologist Rudolf Stampfuss. More systematic research, however, was conducted during the 1960s inEpirus,Macedonia,Thessaly and thePeloponnese by English, American and German research groups.[11]
The Middle Bronze AgeMinoan civilization inCrete lasted fromc. 3000 – c. 1400 BC.[20] Little specific information is known about the Minoans, including their written system, which was recorded with the undecipheredLinear A script[20] andCretan hieroglyphs. Even the nameMinoans is a modern appellation, derived fromMinos, the legendary king of Crete. They were primarily a mercantile people engaged in extensive overseas trade throughout the Mediterranean region.[20]
Minoan civilization was affected by a number of natural cataclysms, such as the volcanic eruption atThera (c. 1628-1627 BC) andearthquakes (c. 1600 BC).[20] In 1425 BC, all theMinoan palaces exceptKnossos were devastated by fire, which allowed theMycenaean Greeks, influenced by the Minoans' culture, to expand into Crete.[20] Remains of the Minoan civilization which preceded the Mycenaean civilization on Crete were first discovered in the modern era by SirArthur Evans in 1900, when he purchased and began excavating the site atKnossos.[21]
Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrioraristocracy. Around 1400 BC, the Mycenaeans extended their control toCrete, the center of theMinoan civilization, and adopted a form of the Minoan scriptLinear A to write an early form ofGreek. The Mycenaean-era script is calledLinear B, which was deciphered in 1952 byMichael Ventris. The Mycenaeans buried their nobles inbeehive tombs (tholoi), large circular burial chambers with a high-vaulted roof and straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. Nobility was also often buried with gold masks, tiaras, armor, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwentmummification.
Around 1100–1050 BC, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed. Numerous cities were sacked, and the region entered what historians see as a "dark age". During this period, Greece experienced a decline inpopulation andliteracy. The Greeks themselves have traditionally blamed this decline on aninvasion by another wave of Greek people, theDorians, although there is scant archaeological evidence for this view.
Ancient Greece is considered by many historians to be the foundational culture ofWestern civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe. Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, art, and architecture of the modern world, particularly during theRenaissance in Western Europe and again during variousneo-classical revivals in 18th- and 19th-century Europe and the Americas.
The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization coincided with the fall of several other large empires in the near east, most notably theHittite and theEgyptian. The cause is still somewhat mysterious, but has often been attributed to the invasion of hypothesizedSea Peoples wielding iron weapons. A hypothesizedDorian invasion may have also contributed, as asserted by ancient Greek legend but unsubstantiated by the archaeological record. Legend asserts thatDorians migrated down into Greece equipped with superior iron weapons, colonizing and easily dispersing the already weakened Mycenaeans. The period that follows these events is collectively known as the Greek Dark Ages.
Kings ruled throughout this period until eventually they were replaced with anaristocracy, then still later, in some areas, an aristocracy within an aristocracy—an elite of the elite. Warfare shifted from a focus on the cavalry to a great emphasis on infantry. Due to its cheapness of production and local availability, iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice in the manufacturing of tools and weapons. Slowly, however, equality grew among the different sects of people, leading to the dethronement of the various kings and the rise of the family.[clarification needed][citation needed]
At the end of this period of stagnation, the Greek civilization was engulfed in a renaissance that spread throughout the Greek world as far as theBlack Sea andSpain.[citation needed] Writing was relearned from thePhoenicians, eventually spreading north intoItaly and theGauls.
In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost andMycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted thePhoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC, written records begin to appear.[23] Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley, and plain is cut off from its neighbors by the sea or mountain ranges.[24]
The Archaic period can be understood as theOrientalizing period, when Greece was at the fringe, but not under the sway, of the buddingNeo-Assyrian Empire. Greece adopted significant amounts of cultural elements from the Orient, in art as well as in religion and mythology. Archaeologically, Archaic Greece is marked byGeometric pottery.
The basic unit of politics in Ancient Greece was thepolis (Ancient Greek:πόλις), sometimes translated as "city-state". The term lends itself to the modern English word "politics", which literally means "the things of thepolis". At least in theory, eachpolis was politically independent. However, somepoleis were subordinate to others (e.g., a colony traditionally deferred to its mother city, and some had governments wholly dependent upon others (e.g., theThirty Tyrants inAthens was imposed bySparta following thePeloponnesian War), but the titularly supreme power in eachpolis was located within that city. This meant that when Greece went to war (e.g., against thePersian Empire), it took the form of an alliance going to war. It also gave ample opportunity for wars within Greece between differentpoleis.
Two major wars shaped the Classical Greek world. The first was thePersian Wars (499–449 BC), recounted in the Greek historianHerodotus'sHistories. By the late 6th century BC, theAchaemenid Persian Empire ruled over all Greek city-states inIonia (the western coast of modern-dayTurkey) and had made territorial gains in theBalkans and Eastern Europe proper as well. In 499 BC, the Greek cities ofIonia, led byMiletus,revolted against thePersian Empire and were supported by some mainland cities, includingAthens andEretria. After the uprising had been quelled,Darius I launched thefirst Persian invasion of Greece to exact revenge on the mainland Greeks. In 492 BC, Persian generalMardonius led an army (supported by a fleet) across theHellespont, re-subjugatingThrace and addingMacedonia as a fully-subjugated client kingdom.[25] However, before he could reach Greece proper, his fleet was destroyed in a storm nearMount Athos. In 490 BC, Darius sent another fleet directly across theAegean Sea (rather than following the land route as Mardonius had done) to subdue Athens. After destroying the city ofEretria, the fleet landed and faced the Athenian army atMarathon, which ended in a decisive Athenian victory.
In 480 BC,Xerxes I, successor to Darius I, launched theSecond Persian invasion of Greece. The Persians scored early victories, most notably atThermopylae, where a small Greek force led by KingLeonidas I of Sparta held the pass for three days before being outflanked and overwhelmed. Persian forces overran northern and central Greece,[26]capturing and burning the evacuated city of Athens. However, the Greek city-states soon turned the tide with a bold naval victory atSalamis later that year. The Athenian generalThemistocles lured the larger Persian fleet into the narrow straits, where its size proved a disadvantage. Xerxes withdrew, leaving his generalMardonius to continue the campaign; in 479 BC, Greek land forces decisively defeated the Persians atPlataea.
To prosecute the war and then to defend Greece from further Persian attack, Athens founded theDelian League in 477 BC. Initially, each city in the League would contribute ships and soldiers to a common army, but in time Athens allowed (and then compelled) the smaller cities to contribute funds so that it could supply their quota of ships. Secession from the League could be punished. Following military reversals against the Persians, the treasury was moved fromDelos to Athens, further strengthening the latter's control over the League. The Delian League was eventually referred to pejoratively as the Athenian Empire.
In 458 BC, while the Persian Wars were still ongoing, war broke out between the Delian League and thePeloponnesian League, comprisingSparta and its allies. After some inconclusive fighting, the two sides signed a peace treaty in 447 BC. That peace was stipulated to last thirty years: instead, it held only until 431 BC, with the onset of thePeloponnesian War.
The war began in 431 BC over a dispute between the cities ofCorcyra andEpidamnus.Corinth, an ally ofSparta in thePeloponnesian League, intervened on the Epidamnian side. Fearful lest Corinth capture the Corcyran navy (second only to the Athenian in size), Athens intervened. They prevented Corinth from landing on Corcyra at theBattle of Sybota, laid siege toPotidaea, and forbade all commerce with Corinth's closely situated ally,Megara, with theMegarian decree.
There was disagreement among the Greeks as to which party violated the treaty between theDelian and Peloponnesian Leagues, as Athens was technically defending a new ally. The Corinthians turned to Sparta for aid. Fearing the growing might of Athens and witnessing Athens' willingness to use it against the Megarians (the embargo would have ruined them), Sparta declared the treaty violated, and the Peloponnesian War began in earnest.
The first stage of the war (known as theArchidamian War for the Spartan kingArchidamus II) lasted until 421 BC with the signing of thePeace of Nicias. It began with the Athenian generalPericles recommending that his city fight a defensive war, avoiding battle against the superior land forces led by Sparta, and importing everything needful by maintaining its powerful navy. Athens would simply outlast Sparta, whose citizens feared leave their city for long lest thehelots, a subjugated population of Sparta, revolt.
This strategy required that Athens endure regularsieges, and in 430 BC it was visited with an awfulplague that killed about a quarter of its people, including Pericles. With Pericles gone, less conservative elements gained power in the city and Athens went on the offensive. In 425 BC, it captured 300–400 Spartanhoplites (soldiers) at theBattle of Pylos, a significant fraction of the Spartan fighting force which it could not afford to lose. Meanwhile, Athens suffered humiliating defeats atDelium in 424 BC andAmphipolis in 422. The Peace of Nicias in 421 concluded the first stage of the war, with Sparta recovering its hoplites and Athens recovering the city ofAmphipolis.
Those who signed the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC swore to uphold it for fifty years, but peace lasted only seven years. The second stage of the Peloponnesian War began in 415 BC when Athens embarked on theSicilian Expedition inMagna Graecia to support its allySegesta inSicily against an attack bySyracuse (a Spartan ally also in Sicily) and conquer the island. Initially, Sparta was reluctant to help Syracuse, butAlcibiades, the Athenian general who had argued for the Sicilian Expedition, defected to the Spartan cause after being accused of grossly impious acts. Alcibiades convinced the Spartans that they could not allow Athens to subjugate Syracuse. The campaign ended in disaster for the Athenians.
After the Athenian defeat in Sicily, Athens'Ionian possessions rebelled with the support of Sparta, as advised by Alcibiades. In 411 BC, anoligarchical revolt in Athens held out the chance for peace, but the Athenian navy, which remained committed to the democracy, refused to accept the change and continued fighting in Athens' name. The navy recalled Alcibiades, who had been forced to abandon the Spartan cause after reputedly seducing the wife ofAgis II, a Spartan king, and made him its head. The oligarchy in Athens collapsed and Alcibiades reconquered what had been lost for Athens.
In 407 BC, Alcibiades was replaced following a minor naval defeat at theBattle of Notium. The Spartan generalLysander, having fortified his city's naval power, began winning victory after victory. Athens won theBattle of Arginusae in 406 BC but was prevented by bad weather from rescuing many of its sailors, leading the city to execute or exile eight of its top naval commanders. Lysander followed with a crushing blow at theBattle of Aegospotami in 405 BC which almost destroyed the Athenian fleet. Athens surrendered one year later, ending the Peloponnesian War and beginning a brief of period ofSpartan hegemony in Greece.
The war left devastation in its wake. Discontent with Spartan hegemony from both Athenian and former Spartan allies led to theCorinthian War of 395–387 BC. Backed by theAchaemenid Persian Empire, Athens,Thebes, Corinth, andArgos significantly weakened Spartan military power, though unsuccessful in ending Spartan dominance. The war concluded with theTreaty of Antalcidas in 387 BC, in which Sparta was forced to cedeIonia andCyprus to thePersian Empire. The Corinthian War and its aftermath further sowed the seeds of discontent in Spartan Greece, inducing the Thebans to attack once more. Their general,Epaminondas, crushed Sparta at theBattle of Leuctra in 371 BC, inaugurating a period of Theban dominance in Greece.
In 346 BC, unable to prevail in itsten-year war withPhocis, Thebes called uponPhilip II of Macedon for aid.Macedon quickly unified the Greek city-states under Macedonian hegemony into theLeague of Corinth in 338–337 BC. In 336 BC, power was transferred to Philip's son,Alexander the Great, who spent the next ten years conquering the Persian Empire and much of Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of 30, Alexander had created one of thelargest empires in history, stretching fromGreece to northwesternIndia.[27] He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders.[28][29] After Alexander's death in 323 BC, theMacedonian Empire disintegrated underwidespread civil wars, beginning the Hellenistic Age of Greek history.
The Hellenistic period of Greek history begins with the death ofAlexander the Great in 323 BC and ends with theconquest of the Greek peninsula and islands byRome in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent ofChristianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence.
During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centres of Hellenistic culture wereAlexandria andAntioch, capitals ofPtolemaic Egypt andSeleucid Syria, respectively. (SeeHellenistic civilization for the history of Greek culture outside Greece in this period.)
Athens and her allies revolted againstMacedon upon hearing that Alexander the Great had died in 323 BC, but were defeated within a year in theLamian War. Meanwhile, a struggle for power broke out among Alexander's generals, which resulted in the break-up of his empire and the establishment of a number of new kingdoms in theWars of the Diadochi.Ptolemy was left withEgypt, andSeleucus with theLevant,Mesopotamia, and points east. Control of Greece,Thrace, andAnatolia was contested, but by 298 BC theAntigonid dynasty had supplanted theAntipatrid.
Macedonian control of the city-states was intermittent, with a number of revolts. Athens,Rhodes,Pergamum, and other Greek states retained substantial independence and joined theAetolian League as a means of defending it and restoring democracy in their states, as they saw Macedon as a tyrannical kingdom. TheAchaean League, while nominally subject to thePtolemies, was in effect independent, and controlled most of southern Greece. Sparta also remained independent, but generally refused to join any league.
In 267 BC,Ptolemy II persuaded the Greek cities to revolt against Macedon in what became theChremonidean War, named after the Athenian leaderChremonides. The cities were defeated and Athens lost her independence and democratic institutions. This marked the end of Athens as a political actor, although it remained the largest, wealthiest, and most cultivated city in Greece. In 225 BC, Macedon defeated the Egyptian fleet atCos and brought theAegean islands, except Rhodes, under its rule as well.
Sparta remained hostile to the Achaeans, and in 227 BC it invadedAchaea and seized control of the League. The remaining Achaeans preferred distant Macedon to nearby Sparta and allied with the former. In 222 BC, the Macedonian army defeated the Spartans and annexed their city—the first time Sparta had ever been occupied by a different state.
Philip V of Macedon was the last Greek ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. Under his auspices, the Peace of Naupactus (217 BC) brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and at this time he controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes, and Pergamum.
In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemyCarthage. Rome promptly lured the Achaean cities away from their nominal loyalty to Philip, and formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, now the strongest power inAsia Minor. TheFirst Macedonian War broke out in 212 BC and ended inconclusively in 205 BC, but Macedon was now marked as an enemy of Rome.
In 202 BC, Rome defeated Carthage and was free to turn her attention eastwards. In 198 BC, theSecond Macedonian War broke out because Rome saw Macedon as a potential ally of theSeleucid Empire, the greatest power in the East. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him, and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated at theBattle of Cynoscephalae by the RomanproconsulTitus Quinctius Flaminius.
Luckily for the Greeks, Flaminius was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but he was otherwise spared. At theIsthmian Games in 196 BC, Flaminius declared all the Greek cities free, although Roman garrisons were placed at Corinth andChalcis. But the freedom promised by Rome was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and aristocratic constitutions were favored and actively promoted.
In the 2nd century BC, Greece was conquered by theRoman Republic and came under its control. Still, Greek culture flourished during this period—city-states maintained a level of political autonomy, and Roman society adopted many aspects of Greek culture. For example,Roman poets likeOvid,Virgil, andHorace retold and adopted many Greek myths of old, folding them into Roman culture. Roman society even claimed to share a cultural lineage with Greece, as exemplified by Virgil'sepic, theAeneid, which details theirfounding myth of how the Roman people descended from theTrojanAeneas ofHomeric lore.
The Romans divided the region into four smaller republics, and in 146 BCMacedonia officially became a province, with its capital atThessalonica. The rest of the Greekcity-states eventually paid homage to Rome, ending theirde jure autonomy as well. The Romans left local administration to the Greeks without making any attempt to abolish traditional political patterns. Theagora in Athens continued to be the center of civic and political life.
EmperorCaracalla's decree in 212 AD, theConstitutio Antoniniana, extended citizenship outsideItaly to all free adult men in the entire Roman Empire, effectively raising provincial populations to equal status with the city of Rome itself. The importance of this decree is historical, not political. It set the basis forintegration, where the economic and judicial mechanisms of the state could be applied throughout the Mediterranean as was once done fromLatium into all Italy. In practice, integration did not take place uniformly. Societies already integrated with Rome, such as Greece, were favored by the decree, as opposed to the further away, poorer, or more culturally different provinces likeBritain,Palestine, orEgypt.
Caracalla's decree did not set in motion the processes that led to the transfer of power from Italy and the West to Greece and the East, but rather accelerated them, setting the foundations for the millennium-long rise of Greece, in the form of theEastern Roman Empire, as a major power in Europe and the Mediterranean in theMiddle Ages.
The division of theRoman Empire intoEast andWest and the subsequent collapse of the Western one accentuated the position of Greece in the empire and eventually brought it into the imperial center of power.Constantinople (now modern-dayIstanbul) became the central city of the empire whenConstantine the Great declaredByzantium the new capital of the Roman Empire, renaming the city in his honor. This political change signified the broader eastward migration ofHellenism towardAnatolia, and it nominally placed the city as the center ofHellenic culture, a beacon for Greeks that lasted into the modern era.
The East Roman Empire, now also known as theByzantine Empire, was dominated politically by Emperors Constantine the Great andJustinian from 324 to 610. Assimilating the Roman tradition, the emperors sought to build the foundation for later developments and formation of the Empire. The early centuries of the Empire were marked by efforts to secure its borders and restore the Roman territories, as well as the formation and establishment of theOrthodox Church and several of religious schisms following it.
In the first period of the middle Byzantine era (610–867), the empire was attacked both by old enemies (Persians,Lombards,Avars, andSlavs) as well as by new ones (Arabs,Bulgars). The main characteristic of this period was instability, as enemy attacks tended to extend deep into the Empire's interior, even threatening the capital itself.
The attacks of the Slavs became less frequent as theSlavic migrations to the Balkans ended and permanent Slavic settlements and states began to form. Initially hostile to Constantinople until theirChristianization, the Byzantines referred to these tribes and states asSclavinias.
Changes also occurred in the internal structure of the empire, due to both external and internal conditions. The predominance of small free farmers, the expansion of military estates, and the development of the system ofthemes brought to completion the developments started by early Byzantine Emperors. Cultural and religious changes occurred as well. Byzantine administration and society became inseparably Greek. Additionally, the restoration of Orthodoxy after theiconoclast movements (726–787 and 814–842) allowed the successful resumption of missionary action among neighboring peoples and their placement within the sphere of Byzantine cultural influence. During this period, the Empire was geographically reduced and economically damaged since it lost wealth-producing regions. However, it obtained greater lingual, dogmatic, and cultural homogeneity.
From the late 8th century, the Empire began to recover from the devastating impact of successive invasions, and the reconquest of the Greek peninsula began. Greeks fromSicily andAsia Minor were brought in as settlers. Slavs were either driven out to Asia Minor or assimilated, and theSclavinias were forcibly eradicated. By the middle of the 9th century, the Greek peninsula was under Byzantine control again, and its cities began to recover due to improved security and the restoration of effective central control.
After the Byzantine Empire wasrescued from a period of crisis through the resolute leadership of the threeKomnenoi emperorsAlexios,John, andManuel in the 12th century, Greece prospered. Recent research has revealed that this period was a time of significant growth in the rural economy, with rising population levels and extensive tracts of new agricultural land being brought into production.[citation needed] The widespread construction of new rural churches around this time is a strong indication that prosperity was being generated even in remote areas.
A steady increase in population led to a higherpopulation density, and there is good evidence that the demographic increase was accompanied by the revival of towns. According to Alan Harvey'sEconomic Expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900–1200, towns expanded significantly in the twelfth century. Archaeological evidence shows an increase in the size of urban settlements, together with a "notable upsurge" in new towns. It also indicates that many medieval towns, includingAthens,Thessaloniki,Thebes, andCorinth, experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.[30][page needed]
The growth of the towns attracted trade with theVenetian Republic in nearby Italy, and this interest in trade appears to have further increased economic prosperity in Greece. The Venetians and others were active traders in the ports of theHoly Land, and they made a living out of shipping goods between theCrusader Kingdoms ofOutremer and the West while also trading extensively with Byzantium andEgypt.
A renaissance ofByzantine art began in the 10th century. Many of the most importantByzantine churches in and around Athens, for example, were built around this time. This artistic revival reflects theurbanization of Greece during this period. There was also a revival inmosaic art, with artists showing great interest in depicting natural landscapes with wild animals and scenes from the hunt. Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. With its love of luxury and passion for color, the art of this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the Christian world.
Beautifulsilks from the workshops of Constantinople portrayed animals in dazzling color, such as lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins confronting each other, or Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase. The eyes of many patrons were attracted and the economy of Greece grew. In the provinces, regional schools of architecture began producing many distinctive styles that drew on a range of cultural influences. All this suggests that there was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work.
Yet the marvelous expansion of Byzantine art during this period, one of the most remarkable facts in the history of the empire, did not stop there. From the 10th to the 12th century, Byzantium was the main source of artistic inspiration for the West. For example, the mosaics ofSt. Mark's Basilica theTorcello Cathedral inVenice clearly show Byzantine influence in their style, arrangement, and iconography. Similarly inSicily, the mosaics of thePalatine Chapel,Martorana, andMonreale Cathedral inPalermo, as well as theCefalù Cathedral, show the influence of Byzantine art onNorman Sicily in the 12th century.
Andalusian art in Western Europe was also influenced by Byzantium.Romanesque art, too, contains many Byzantine elements, including its decorative forms and the plans of some of its buildings (e.g., the domed churches of south-western France).Princes of Kiev,Venetian Doges, abbots ofMonte Cassino, merchants ofAmalfi, and the Norman kings of Sicily all drew from Byzantine culture in their art.
The Latin Empire lasted only 57 years, and in 1261Constantinople was reclaimed by the Nicaean Empire andthe Byzantine Empire was restored. However, in mainland Greece and the Greek islands, various Latin and Venetian possessions continued to exist. From 1261 onwards, Byzantium underwent a gradual weakening of its internal structures and the reduction of its territories fromOttoman invasions, culminating in thefall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople resulted in the official end of both the Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine period of Greek history.
The Greeks held out in thePeloponnese until 1460, and theVenetians andGenoese clung to some of the islands, but by the early 16th century all of mainland Greece and most of theAegean Islands wereconquered by theOttoman Empire, excluding several port cities still held by the Venetians (Nafplio,Monemvasia,Parga andMethone the most important of them). TheCyclades, in the middle of theAegean Sea, were officially annexed by the Ottomans in 1579, although they were under vassal status since the 1530s.Cyprus fell in 1571, and the Venetians retainedCrete until 1669. TheIonian Islands were never ruled by the Ottomans, with the exception ofKefalonia (from 1479 to 1481 and from 1485 to 1500), and they remained under the rule of theRepublic of Venice. It was in the Ionian Islands where modern Greek statehood was born, with the creation of theRepublic of the Seven Islands in 1800.
When the Ottomans arrived, two Greek migrations occurred. In the first, the Greekintelligentsia migrated to Western Europe, influencing the advent of theEuropean Renaissance. In the second, Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains.[31]
Ottoman Greece was amultiethnic society, but in a way very different from the modern Western notion ofmulticulturalism.[32] The Greeks were given some privileges and freedom by the Empire, but they were exposed to tyranny deriving from malpractices of regional administrative personnel, over which the central government had only remote and incomplete control.[33] The Ottomanmillet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. Greeks living in the plains during Ottoman rule were either Christians orcrypto-Christians, Greek "Muslims" who were secret practitioners of the Greek Orthodox faith. Some Greeks became crypto-Christians to avoid heavy taxes while retaining their religious identity and ties to theGreek Orthodox Church. Greeks who converted toIslam and were not crypto-Christians were deemed "Turks" in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks even if they did not adopt theTurkish language, evidence of the ethnic and religious tensions in Greece under Ottoman rule.[citation needed]
The Ottomans ruled most of Greece until the early 19th century. The first self-governed Hellenic state since the Middle Ages was established on the Ionian islands during theFrench Revolutionary Wars in 1800, 21 years before the outbreak of theGreek revolution in mainland Greece. It was called theSeptinsular Republic (Greek:Ἑπτάνησος Πολιτεία), or Republic of the Seven United Islands, and it usedCorfu as its capital.
TheBattle of Navarino, in October 1827, marked the effective end of Ottoman rule in Greece.Nafplio, the first capital of independent Greece during the governance ofIoannis Kapodistrias
In the early months of 1821, the Greeksdeclared their independence, but did not achieve it until 1829. The Great Powers first shared the same view concerning the necessity of preserving thestatus quo of the Ottoman Empire, but soon changed their stance. Scores of non-Greekphilhellenes volunteered to fight for the cause, includingLord Byron.
On October 20, 1827, a combined British, French and Russian naval force destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian armada. The Russian minister of foreign affairs,Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself aSeptinsular Greek, returned home as Governor of theFirst Republic and with his diplomatic handling, managed to secure the Greek independence and the military domination inCentral Greece. The first capital of the independent Greece was temporarilyAigina (1828–1829) and later officiallyNafplion (1828–1834). After his assassination, the European powers turned Greece into a monarchy; the first King,Otto, came fromBavaria and the second,George I, fromDenmark. In 1834, King Otto transferred the capital to Athens.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire. Greece played a peripheral role in theCrimean War. When Russia attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1853, Greek leaders saw an opportunity to expand North and South into Ottoman areas that had a Christian majority. However, Greece did not coordinate its plans with Russia, did not declare war, and received no outside military or financial support. The French and British seized its major port and effectively neutralized the Greek army. Greek efforts to cause insurrections failed as they were easily crushed by Ottoman forces. Greece was not invited to the peace conference and made no gains out of the war. The frustrated Greek leadership blamed the King for failing to take advantage of the situation; his popularity plunged and he was later forced to abdicate. TheIonian Islands were given by Britain upon the arrival of the new KingGeorge I in 1863 andThessaly was ceded by the Ottomans in 1880.
George I was King of the Hellenes from 1862 to 1913
In the late 19th century, modernization transformed the social structure of Greece. The population grew rapidly, putting heavy pressure on the system of small farms with low productivity. Overall, population density more than doubled from 41 persons per square mile in 1829 to 114 in 1912 (16 to 44 per km2). One response was emigration to the United States, with a quarter million people leaving between 1906 and 1914. Entrepreneurs found numerous business opportunities in the retail and restaurant sectors of American cities; some sent money back to their families, others returned with hundreds of dollars, enough to purchase a farm or a small business in the old village. The urban population tripled from 8% in 1853 to 24% in 1907. Athens grew from a village of 6000 people in 1834, when it became the capital, to 63,000 in 1879, 111,000 in 1896, and 167,000 in 1907.[34]
In Athens and other cities, men arriving from rural areas set up workshops and stores, creating a middle class. They joined with bankers, professional men, university students, and military officers, to demand reform and modernization of the political and economic system. Athens became the center of the merchant marine, which quadrupled from 250,000 tons in 1875 to more than 1,000,000 tons in 1915. As the cities modernized, businessmen adopted the latest styles of Western European architecture.[35]
The landing of Greek troops inKavala during the Balkan Wars
The participation of Greece in theBalkan Wars of 1912–1913 is one of the most important episodes in modern Greek history, as it allowed the Greek state to almost double its size and achieve most of its present territorial size. As a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, most ofEpirus,Macedonia, Crete and the northernAegean islands were incorporated into theKingdom of Greece.
The outbreak ofWorld War I in 1914 produced a split in Greek politics, withKing Constantine I, an admirer of Germany, calling for neutrality while Prime MinisterEleftherios Venizelos pushed for Greece to join the Allies.[36] The conflict between the monarchists and the Venizelists sometimes resulted in open warfare and became known as theNational Schism. In 1917, the Allies forced Constantine to abdicate in favor of his son Alexander and Venizelos returned as premier. At the end of the war, the Great Powers agreed that the Ottoman city ofSmyrna (İzmir) and its hinterland, both of which had large Greek populations, be handed over to Greece.[36]
Greek troops occupied Smyrna in 1919, and in 1920 theTreaty of Sèvres was signed by the Ottoman government; the treaty stipulated that in five years' time a plebiscite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece.[36] However,Turkish nationalists, led byMustafa Kemal Atatürk, overthrew the Ottoman government and organised a military campaign against the Greek troops, resulting in theGreco-Turkish War (1919–1922). A major Greek offensive ground to a halt in 1921, and by 1922 Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna on 9 September 1922, and thena fire broke out in the city. It is debatable who is responsible for the fire. The fire resulted in the deaths of Armenians and Greeks in Smyrna.[36]
The war was concluded by theTreaty of Lausanne (1923), according to which there was to be apopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey on the basis of religion. Over one million Orthodox Christians left Turkey in exchange for 400,000 Muslims from Greece.[36] The events of 1919–1922 are regarded in Greece as a particularly calamitous period of history. Between 1914 and 1923, an estimated 750,000[37] to 900,000[38] Greeks died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in what many scholars have termed agenocide.[39][40][41][42]
Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made a decisive contribution to theAllied efforts inWorld War II. At the start of the war, Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands. Italy invaded Greece by way of Albania on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (seeGreco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war.
Primarily to secure his strategic southern flank, German dictatorAdolf Hitler reluctantly stepped in and launched theBattle of Greece in April 1941. Axis units from Germany, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, through Yugoslavia, forcing out the Greek defenders. The Greek government eventually decided to stop the fighting and thus stopped sending ammunition and supplies to the northern front and the defenders were easily overrun. The Greek government then proceeded, as the Nazi forces came towards the capital of Athens, to leave for Crete and then Cairo, Egypt.
On 20 May 1941, the Germans attempted toseize Crete with a large attack byparatroopers, with the aim of reducing the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces inEgypt, but faced heavy resistance. The Greek campaign might have delayed German military plans against the Soviet Union, and it is argued that had the German invasion of theSoviet Union started on 20 May 1941 instead of 22 June 1941, the Nazi assault against the Soviet Union might have succeeded. The heavy losses of German paratroopers led the Germans to launch no further large-scale air-invasions.
During theAxis occupation of Greece, thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of theJewish community despite efforts by Christian Greeks to shelter the Jews. The economy was devastated, and the currency suffered one of the worsthyperinflations ever recorded.
When the Soviet Army began its drive acrossRomania in August 1944, the German Army in Greece began withdrawing north and northwestward from Greece intoYugoslavia andAlbania to avoid being cut off in Greece. Hence, the German occupation of Greece ended in October 1944. The Resistance groupELAS seized control of Athens on 12 October 1944. British troops had already landed on 4 October inPatras, and entered Athens on 14 October 1944.[43]
Christina Goulter summarizes the devastation done to Greece during the war:[44]
"Between 1941 and 1945, over 8% of the Greek population had died; some 2000 villages and small towns had been razed to the ground; starvation was widespread due to the destruction of crops and worsened in many parts of Greece after liberation when agricultural labourers migrated to urban centres to escape politically inspired violence in the countryside; trade either internally or externally had all but ceased; most of Greece's merchant marine lay at the bottom of the sea; and motorized transport had been confiscated by the axis occupiers."
Organization and military bases of the Communist led "Democratic Army", as well as entry routes to Greece.
The conflict resulted in a victory for the British — and later U.S.-supported government forces, which led to Greece receiving American funds through theTruman Doctrine and theMarshall Plan, as well as becoming a member ofNATO, which helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean for the entire Cold War.
The first phase of the civil war occurred in 1943–1944. Marxist and non-Marxist resistance groups fought each other in a fratricidal conflict to establish the leadership of the Greek resistance movement. In the second phase (December 1944), the ascendant communists, in military control of most of Greece, confronted the returning Greekgovernment in exile, which had been formed under the auspices of the Western Allies inCairo and originally included six KKE-affiliated ministers. In the third phase (called by some the "Third Round"), guerrilla forces controlled by the KKE fought against the internationally recognized Greek government which was formed after elections were boycotted by the KKE. Although the involvement of the KKE in the uprisings was universally known, the party remained legal until 1948, continuing to coordinate attacks from its Athens offices untilproscription.
The war, which lasted from 1946 to 1949, was characterised by guerilla warfare between the KKE forces and Greek governmental forces mainly in the mountain ranges of northern Greece. The war ended with the NATO bombing of Mount Grammos and the final defeat of the KKE forces. The civil war left Greece with a legacy of political polarization. As a result, Greece also entered into an alliance with the United States and joined NATO, while relationships with its communist northern neighbours, both pro-Soviet and neutral, became strained.
Postwar development and integration in Western Bloc (1949–1967)
In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece developed rapidly, initially with the help of theMarshall Plan's grants and loans, also to decrease the communist influence. In 1952, by joining NATO, Greece clearly became part of the Western Bloc of the Cold War. But in Greek society, the deep divide between the leftist and rightist sections continued.
The Greek economy advanced further through growth in the tourism sector. New attention was given towomen's rights, and in 1952suffrage for women was guaranteed in the Constitution, full Constitutional equality following, andLina Tsaldari becoming the first female minister that decade.
Protest against the junta by Greek political exiles in Germany, 1967
In 1967, the Greek military seized power in acoup d'état, overthrowing the centre right government ofPanagiotis Kanellopoulos.[49] It established theGreek military junta of 1967–1974 which became known as theRégime of the Colonels. The junta government's accession to power led to an isolation of Greece from European affairs and froze Greece's entry to the European Union. In 1973, the régime abolished theGreek monarchy and in 1974, dictatorPapadopoulos denied help to the United States. After a second coup that year, ColonelIoannides was appointed as the new head-of-state.
The fall of the junta was followed by themetapolitefsi, initiated whenKonstantinos Karamanlis returned from self-exile in Paris at the invitation of the junta, to become interim prime minister on July 23, 1974.[51] In August 1974, Greek forces withdrew from the integrated military structure of NATO in protest at the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus.[52] Karamanlis won the 1974 elections and put into question in a referentum the monarchy, Greeks voted 69%–31% to confirm the deposition of KingConstantine II. Karamanlis then introduced arepublican constitution that came into force.[53] Later he gained re-election for another term as the head of the conservativeNew Democracy party. In 1980, he becamePresident of Greece. Greece rejoined NATO in 1980, joined theEuropean Union (EU) in 1981. After the restoration of democracy, Greece's stability and economic prosperity improved significantly. However, the Greek economy was facing pressure from theoil crises of the 1970s and from the increased competition by joining EU.
New infrastructure funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, shipping, services, light industry and the telecommunications industry have brought Greeks an unprecedented standard of living. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and thedelimitation of borders in theAegean Sea but relations have considerably thawed following successive earthquakes, first in Turkey and then in Greece, and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks (seeEarthquake Diplomacy).
The 2008 global economic recession impacted Greece, as well as therest of the countries in the eurozone. From late 2009, fears developed in investment markets of asovereign debt crisis concerning Greece's ability to pay its debts, in view of the large increase in the country'sgovernment debt.[58][59] This crisis of confidence was indicated by a widening ofbondyield spreads and risk insurance oncredit default swaps compared to other countries, most importantly Germany.[60][61] Downgrading of Greek government debt tojunk bond status created alarm in financial markets. On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and theInternational Monetary Fund agreed on a€110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures.
In October 2011, Eurozone leaders also agreed on a proposal to write off 50% of Greek debt owed to private creditors, increasing theEuropean Financial Stability Facility amount to about €1 trillion, and requiring European banks to achieve 9% capitalization to reduce the risk ofcontagion to other countries. These austerity measures were extremely unpopular with the Greek public, precipitating demonstrations and civil unrest. This period corresponds toGreek government-debt crisis, that changed dramatically the political stage. Early in the period, PASOK were able to capitalise on a loss of support for ND. However, by the early 2010s, PASOK were also attracting blame for their handling of the crisis, and the radical partySYRIZA became the largest party on the left. The position of the far-right was also strengthened in this period.
SYRIZA has since overtaken PASOK as the main party of the centre-left.[62]Alexis Tsipras led SYRIZA to victory in the general election held on 25 January 2015, falling short of an outright majority in Parliament by just two seats.[63] The following morning, Tsipras reached an agreement with Independent Greeks party to form a coalition, and he was sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece.[64] Tsipras called snap elections in August 2015, resigning from his post, which led to a month-long caretaker administration headed by judgeVassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, Greece's first female prime minister.[65] In the September 2015 general election, Alexis Tsipras led SYRIZA to another victory, winning 145 out of 300 seats[66] and re-forming the coalition with the Independent Greeks.[67] However, he was defeated in the July 2019 generalelection byKyriakos Mitsotakis who leads New Democracy.[68] On 7 July 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Greece. He formed a centre-right government after the landslide victory of his New Democracy party.[69]
In March 2020, Greece's parliament elected a non-partisan candidate,Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as the first femalePresident of Greece.[70] In June 2023, conservative New Democracy party won the legislativeelection, meaning another four-year term as prime minister for Kyriakos Mitsotakis.[71]
In 2024, the Greek economy is forecast to grow nearly 3%, meaning it approaches its pre-crisis size of 2009 and far outpacing the euro zone average economic growth of 0.8%.[72] On 31 August 2024, Greece declared a state of emergency in Volos after more than 100 metric tons of dead fish were recovered from the port of Volos.[73] On 13 March 2025,Konstantinos Tasoulas was sworn in as Greece's new president.[74]
^Pashou, Drineas & Yannaki 2014, p. 5: "The earliest Neolithic sites with developed agricultural economies in Europe dated 8500–9000 BPE are found in Greece. The general features of the material culture of the Greek Neolithic and the genetic features of the preserved crops and associated weeds of the earliest Greek Neolithic sites point to Near Eastern origins. How these Near Eastern migrants reached Greece is a matter of speculation...Our data support the Anatolian rather than the Levantine route because they consistently show the Aegean islands to be connected to the Near East through Anatolia. Archaeological evidence from Greek and Near Eastern and Anatolian Neolithic sites suggest that multiple waves of Neolithic migrants reached Greece and Southern Europe. Most likely multiple routes were used in these migrations but, as our data show, the maritime route and island hopping was prominent."
^A comprehensive overview in J.T. Hooker'sMycenaean Greece (Hooker 1976, Chapter 2: "Before the Mycenaean Age", pp. 11–33 and passim); for a different hypothesis excluding massive migrations and favoring an autochthonous scenario, see Colin Renfrew's "Problems in the General Correlation of Archaeological and Linguistic Strata in Prehistoric Greece: The Model of Autochthonous Origin" (Renfrew 1973, pp. 263–276, especially p. 267) inBronze Age Migrations by R.A. Crossland and A. Birchall, eds. (1973).
^Bloom, Jonathan M.; Blair, Sheila S. (2009)The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture: Mosul to Zirid, Volume 3. (Oxford University Press Incorporated, 2009), 385; "[Khojand, Tajikistan]; As the easternmost outpost of the empire of Alexander the Great, the city was renamed Alexandria Eschate ("furthest Alexandria") in 329 BC."Golden, Peter B.Central Asia in World History (Oxford University Press, 2011), 25;"[...] his campaigns in Central Asia brought Khwarazm, Sogdia and Bactria under Graeco-Macedonian rule. As elsewhere, Alexander founded or renamed a number of cities, such as Alexandria Eschate ("Outernmost Alexandria", near modern Khojent in Tajikistan)."
^"Alexander the Great's Achievements".Britannica.Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved19 August 2021. "Alexander the Great was one of the greatest military strategists and leaders in world history."
^Vacalopoulos 1976, p. 45: "The Greeks never lost their desire to escape from the heavy hand of the Turks, bad government, the impressment of their children, the increasingly heavy taxation, and the sundry caprices of the conqueror. Indeed, anyone studying the last two centuries of Byzantine rule cannot help being struck by the propensity of the Greeks to flee misfortune. The routes they chiefly took were: first, to the predominantly Greek territories, which were either still free or Frankish-controlled (that is to say, the Venetian fortresses in the Despotate of Morea, as well as in the Aegean and Ionian Islands) or else to Italy and the West generally; second, to remote mountain districts in the interior where the conqueror's yoke was not yet felt."
^Jones 2010, pp. 150–151: "By the beginning of the First World War, a majority of the region's ethnic Greeks still lived in present-day Turkey, mostly in Thrace (the only remaining Ottoman territory in Europe, abutting the Greek border), and along the Aegean and Black Sea coasts. They would be targeted both prior to and alongside the Armenians of Anatolia and Assyrians of Anatolia and Mesopotamia...The major populations of "Anatolian Greeks" include those along the Aegean coast and in Cappadocia (central Anatolia), but not the Greeks of the Thrace region west of the Bosphorus...A "Christian genocide" framing acknowledges the historic claims of Assyrian and Greek peoples, and the movements now stirring for recognition and restitution among Greek and Assyrian diasporas. It also brings to light the quite staggering cumulative death toll among the various Christian groups targeted...of the 1.5 million Greeks of Asia minor – Ionians, Pontians, and Cappadocians – approximately 750,000 were massacred and 750,000 exiled. Pontian deaths alone totaled 353,000."
^Jones 2010, p. 166: "An estimate of the Pontian Greek death toll at all stages of the anti-Christian genocide is about 350,000; for all the Greeks of the Ottoman realm taken together, the toll surely exceeded half a million, and may approach the 900,000 killed that a team of US researchers found in the early postwar period. Most surviving Greeks were expelled to Greece as part of the tumultuous "population exchanges" that set the seal on a heavily "Turkified" state."
^Shrader 1999, p. 266: "As the first major confrontation of the Cold War, the Greek civil war was a testing ground for the tactics and techniques of insurgent-counterinsurgent warfare, which would mark military affairs for the ensuing four decades."
^Graham T. Allison; Kalypso Nicolaïdis (January 1997).The Greek Paradox: Promise Vs. Performance. MIT Press. p. 43.ISBN978-0-262-51092-9.phase of 1960 to 1973 (the period hailed by many as the "Greek economic miracle"), gross domestic product grew at an average annual rate of 7.7 percent, but exports of goods and services grew at the much higher average rate of 12.6
^Coccossis & Psycharis 2008, pp. 44–45 (including "Table 1: Periods of the Post-dictatorial Greek Governments").
^Featherstone, Kevin (March 2005). "Introduction: 'Modernisation' and the Structural Constraints of Greek Politics".West European Politics.28 (2):223–241.doi:10.1080/01402380500058753.
^Tsoukalis, Loukas (Spring 1999). "Greece: Like Any Other European Country?".The National Interest.55 (55):65–74.JSTOR42897144.
Dickinson, Oliver (1977).The Origins of Mycenaean Civilization. Götenberg: Paul Aströms Förlag.
Dickinson, Oliver (December 1999). "Invasion, Migration and the Shaft Graves".Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies.43 (1):97–107.doi:10.1111/j.2041-5370.1999.tb00480.x.
French, D.M. (1973). "Migrations and 'Minyan' pottery in western Anatolia and the Aegean". In Crossland, R.A.; Birchall, Ann (eds.).Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press. pp. 51–57.
Schaller, Dominik J.; Zimmerer, Jürgen (2008). "Late Ottoman Genocides: The Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish Population and Extermination Policies – Introduction".Journal of Genocide Research.10 (1):7–14.doi:10.1080/14623520801950820.S2CID71515470.
Podzuweit, Christian (1982). "Die mykenische Welt und Troja". In Hänsel, B. (ed.).Südosteuropa zwischen 1600 und 1000 v. Chr (in German). Berlin: Prahistorische Archäologie in Sudosteuropa. pp. 65–88.
Boletsi, M. "The futurity of things past: Thinking Greece beyond crisis."Inaugural Speech as Marilena Laskaridis Chair of Modern Greek Studies, Amsterdam, Netherlands 21 (2018)online.
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