Ancient Greece

Ambracia (/æmˈbreɪʃə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀμβρακία, occasionally Ἀμπρακία, Ampracia) was a city of ancient Greece on the site of modern Arta. It was founded by the Corinthians in 625 BC and was situated about 11 km (7 mi) from the Ambracian Gulf, on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos (or Aratthus), in the midst of a fertile wooded plain.

The Seleucid Empire (/sɪˈljuːsɪd/ sih-LEW-sid) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, and ruled by the Seleucid dynasty until its annexation by the Roman Republic under Pompey in 63 BC.

After receiving the Mesopotamian regions of Babylonia and Assyria in 321 BC, Seleucus I began expanding his dominions to include the Near Eastern territories that encompass modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Lebanon, all of which had been under Macedonian control after the fall of the former Achaemenid Empire. At the Seleucid Empire's height, it had consisted of territory that covered Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what are now modern Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Turkmenistan.

Aetolia (Greek: Αἰτωλία, romanized: Aitōlía) is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, corresponding to the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Ancient Aetolia was the core of the Aetolian League and also included parts of modern Evrytania.

The helots (/ˈhɛləts, ˈhiːləts/; Greek: εἵλωτες, heílotes) were a subjugated group that constituted a majority of the population of Laconia and Messenia – the territories ruled by Sparta in Ancient Greece. There has been controversy since antiquity as to their exact characteristics, such as whether they constituted an Ancient Greek tribe, a social class, or both. For example, Critias described helots as "slaves to the utmost", whereas according to Pollux, they occupied a status "between free men and slaves". Tied to the land, they primarily worked in agriculture as a majority and economically supported the Spartan citizens.

The proportion of helots in relation to Spartan citizens varied throughout the history of the Spartan state; according to Herodotus, there were seven helots for each of the 5,000 Spartan soldiers at the time of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Thus the need to keep the helot population in check and to prevent rebellion were major concerns of the Spartans. Helots were ritually mistreated and humiliated. Every autumn the Spartan polis declared war on the helots, allowing them to be killed and abused by members of the Crypteia without fear of religious repercussion. Uprisings and attempts to improve the lot of the helots did occur, such as the conspiracy of Cinadon of 399 BC. Plato on the other hand does not mention the killings by the Crypteia at all in Laws. The population was largely liberated by the Theban commander Epaminondas following the Theban-Spartan War.

Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the state was known as Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων, Lakedaímōn), while "Sparta" referred to its capital, a group of villages in the valley of the Evrotas River in Laconia, in southeastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become one of the major military powers in Greece, a status it retained until 371 BC.

Sparta was recognized as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with the rising naval power of Athens. Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), from which it emerged victorious after the Battle of Aegospotami. Thebes' victory over Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartan hegemony and freed Messenia from Spartan rule; the loss of the slave labor this region provided sent the city into terminal decline as a military power, though it retained its independence until its forcible integration into the Achaean League in 192 BC. The city recovered some autonomy after the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC and became a tourist destination during the Roman era, restoring some measure of prosperity. However, Sparta was sacked in 396 AD by the Visigothic king Alaric, and underwent a long period of decline into the medieval period, when much of its population relocated to Mystras. Modern Sparta is a provincial town and the seat of the Laconia regional administration.

Asopius (Ancient Greek: Ἀσώπιος) was the name of several men of Ancient Greece related to the 5th-century BCE Athenian general Phormio, and the events of the Peloponnesian War:

• Asopius, the father of Phormio. The geographer Pausanias wrote that this man's name was "Asopichus" instead of "Asopius". Nothing further is known of him.
• Asopius, the son of Phormio, and grandson of the above. This Asopius was, at the request of the Acarnanians who wanted someone from Phormio's family to be in the command, sent by the Athenians in the year following his father's naval victories, in 428 BCE (that is, the 4th year of the Peloponnesian War), with 30 ships to Laconia and thereafter to Naupactus. Asopius then sent 18 ships back to Athens, and continued on to raze Oeniadae with his remaining fleet, though the people of that city remained unbowed. Very shortly afterwards, he landed his ground forces on the Leucadian coast and attacked the city of Nericus. In retreat from that assault, Asopius and most of his forces were cut off by a numerically superior force of Leucadians and some coast guards, and were killed.

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. Medieval philosophy, understood as a project of independent philosophical inquiry, began in Baghdad, in the middle of the 8th century, and in France and Germany, in the itinerant court of Charlemagne in Aachen, in the last quarter of the 8th century. It is defined partly by the process of rediscovering the ancient culture developed in Greece and Rome during the Classical period, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine with secular learning. This is one of the defining characteristics in this time period. Understanding God was the focal point of study of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Philosophers and Theologians.

The history of medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main periods: the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle Ages until the 12th century, when the works of Aristotle and Plato were rediscovered, translated, and studied upon, and the "golden age" of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West, which witnessed the culmination of the recovery of ancient philosophy, along with the reception of its Arabic commentators, and significant developments in the fields of philosophy of religion, logic, and metaphysics.

Draco (fl. c. 625 – c. 600 BC) was the first legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece, according to Athenian tradition. He replaced the system of oral law and blood feud by the Draconian constitution, a written code to be enforced only by a court of law. His laws were supposed to have been very harsh, establishing the death penalty for most offenses. Tradition held that all of his laws were repealed by Solon, save for those on homicide. An inscription from 409/8 BC contains part of the current law and refers to it as "the law of Draco about homicide". Nothing is known about the specifics of other laws established by Draco.

According to some scholars, Draco may have been a fictional figure, entirely or in part. Biographical information about him is almost entirely lacking; he was held to have established his legal code in the year 621/620 BC. Since the 18th century, the adjective draconian (δρακόντειος, drakónteios) refers to similarly unforgiving rules or laws.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, in modern Calabria (Italy) circa 530 BC. Early Pythagorean communities spread throughout Magna Graecia.

Already during Pythagoras's life it is likely that the distinction between the akousmatikoi ("those who listen"), who is conventionally regarded as more concerned with religious, and ritual elements, and associated with the oral tradition, and the mathematikoi ("those who learn") existed. The ancient biographers of Pythagoras, Iamblichus (c. 245 – c. AD 325) and his master Porphyry (c. 234 – c. AD 305) seem to make the distinction of the two as that of 'beginner' and 'advanced'. As the Pythagorean cenobites practiced an esoteric path, like the mystery schools of antiquity, the adherents, akousmatikoi, following initiation became mathematikoi. It is wrong to say that the Pythagoreans were superseded by the Cynics in the 4th century BC, but it seems to be a distinction mark of the Cynics to disregard the hierarchy and protocol, ways of initiatory proceedings significant for the Pythagorean community; subsequently did the Greek philosophical traditions become more diverse. The Platonic Academy was arguably a Pythagorean cenobitic institution, outside the city walls of Athens in the 4th century BC. As a sacred grove dedicated to Athena, and Hecademos (Academos). The academy, the sacred grove of Academos, may have existed, as the contemporaries seem to have believed, since the Bronze Age, even pre-existing the Trojan War. Yet according to Plutarch it was the Athenian strategos (general) Kimon Milkiadou (c. 510 – c. 450 BC) who converted this, "waterless and arid spot into a well watered grove, which he provided with clear running-tracks and shady walks". Plato lived almost a hundred years later, circa 427 to 348 BC. On the other hand, it seems likely that this was a part of the re-building of Athens led by Kimon Milkiadou and Themistocles, following the Achaemenid destruction of Athens in 480–479 BC during the war with Persia. Kimon is at least associated with the building of the southern Wall of Themistocles, the city walls of ancient Athens. It seems likely that the Athenians saw this as a rejuvenation of the sacred grove of Academos.

Diogenes Laërtius (/daɪˌɒdʒɪniːz leɪˈɜːrʃiəs/ dy-OJ-in-eez lay-UR-shee-əs; Ancient Greek: Διογένης Λαέρτιος, Laertios; fl. 3rd century CE) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving work, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, remains a primary source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy. His reputation is controversial among scholars because he often repeats information from his sources without critically evaluating it. In many cases, he focuses on insignificant details of his subjects' lives while ignoring important details of their philosophical teachings and he sometimes fails to distinguish between earlier and later teachings of specific philosophical schools. However, unlike many other ancient secondary sources, Diogenes Laërtius tends to report philosophical teachings without trying to reinterpret or expand on them, and so his accounts are often closer to the primary sources. Due to the loss of so many of the primary sources on which Diogenes relied, his work has become the foremost surviving source on the history of Greek philosophy.