This is the History of the World Podcast with me Chris Hasler

And you're listening to volume three the classical world

episode seven ancient Athens Episode 7, Ancient Athens. Oh, Now the story of ancient Greece is not an easy story to tell in a linear fashion

due to the many different aspects of Greek culture which we are lucky enough to have a lot of detail on.

The reason for this detail is thanks to the many written records that have survived the

test of time and come down to us in the present day

with stories of events and characters who existed in Greek lands 2.5,000 years ago.

Certainly we learned in episode two that Darius

the Great of Akeminid Persia invaded Greek lands in the 5th century B.C.E.

However, before this time there was a great deal to talk about in relation

to the activity of the societies of Greek lands before this period.

Culture and colonization are two particular aspects of ancient Greece which

deserve further attention in future episodes but for now we will

look at ancient Athens due to the significance that this particular Polis has on our understanding of ancient Greek political

developments. As we discovered in the previous episode the lands of Greece were ruled by the Mycenians during the second millennium

B.C. from their power base in the Peloponnese. The Mycenians and their influence dwindled away, eventually disappearing in the wake

of the late Bronze Age collapse, which we spoke of in episode 6 of volume 2 of this podcast.

As a result, the Greek lands enter the dark age, where there is no contemporary written evidence of what was going on.

What we can feel somewhat confident about is the fact that those people of the Greek lands that were left behind

after the late Bronze Age collapse continued to live in this area but their lifestyles

returned to a comparatively simple subsistence lifestyle

until society managed to rebuild itself and grow again.

...