Episode 5 - Early Greece and the first City-states

Welcome to Episode 5 - Early Greece and the first City-States.  Last time, we looked at one of the great civilizations of the ancient world - Egypt.  Our modern culture was not all that directly influenced by Egypt, though you could say our modern culture was very influenced by the Israelites that came out from Egypt.  It’s interesting to me that a small, relatively powerless, backwater nation as Israel was for most of its existence, had such a profound effect on the western world.  One could argue that it was one of the 3 most influential ancient cultures, at least as far as influencing the modern world.  One of the others, not surprisingly, was Rome.  We will get to Rome in due time.  The other major influence on the western world was Ancient Greece.  

It’s hard to overstate how important ancient Greece was in terms of influencing the western world.  Art, government and politics, literature, philosophy, athletics, math, architecture, and worldview - all of these were hugely influenced by ancient Greece.  Who is the most influential philosopher of all time?  Well, it’s either Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle.  They were all Greek.  Where did democracy originate?  Greece.  You could maybe argue that Rome was more influential for a longer period, but you could also argue that Rome was simply spreading Greek learning and values.  Rome had its own valuable contributions, as we will see, but Greece was incredibly influential to the western world.