GREECE'S Archaic period Main article: Archaic period in Greece Dipylon Vase of the late Geometric period, or the

beginning of the Archaic perio d, ca. 750 BC.

Political geography of ancient Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods 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 and Mycenaean scr ipt forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to c reate the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear.[10] Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pa ttern largely dictated by Greek geography: every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges.[11] The Lelantine War (c.710c.650 BC) is the earliest documented war of the ancient G reek period. It was fought between the important poleis (city-states) of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to hav e suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal v ictor. A mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century, shown by the intr oduction of coinage in about 680 BC.[12] This seems to have introduced tension t o many city-states. The aristocratic regimes which generally governed the poleis were threatened by the new-found wealth of merchants, who in turn desired polit ical power. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overth rown and replaced by populist tyrants. This word derives from the non-pejorative Greek trannoV tyrannos, meaning 'illegitimate ruler', and was applicable to both good and b leaders alike.[13][14] A growing population and a shortage of land also seem to have created internal s trife between the poor and the rich in many city-states. In Sparta, the Messenia n Wars resulted in the conquest of Messenia and enserfment of the Messenians, be ginning in the latter half of the 8th century BC, an act without precedent or an tecedent in ancient Greece. This practice allowed a social revolution to occur.[ 15] The subjugated population, thenceforth known as helots, farmed and laboured for Sparta, whilst every Spartan male citizen became a soldier of the Spartan Ar my in a permanently militarized state. Even the elite were obliged to live and t rain as soldiers; this commonality between rich and poor citizens served to defu se the social conflict. These reforms, attributed to the shadowy Lycurgus of Spa rta, were probably complete by 650 BC. Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century, again result ing in civil strife. The Archon (chief magistrate) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BC (hence "draconian"), but these failed to quell the confli ct. Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon (594 BC), improving the lot of the poor but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability . A map showing the Greek territories and colonies during the Archaic period. By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: A thens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rur al areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had becom e major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had resulted in emigr ation of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicil y), Asia Minor and further afield. The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century by which time the Greek world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the area of present-day Greece. Greek colonies were not politi cally controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religiou s and commercial links with them.

The emigration process also determined a long series of conflicts between the Gr eek cities of Sicily, especially Syracuse, and the Carthaginians. These conflict s lasted from 600 BC to 265 BC when Rome entered into an alliance with the Mamer tines to fend off the hostilities by the new tyrant of Syracuse, Hiero II and th en the Carthaginians. This way Rome became the new dominant power against the fa ding strength of the Sicilian Greek cities and the Carthaginian supremacy in the region. One year later the First Punic War erupted. Main article: GreekPunic Wars In this period, there was huge economic development in Greece, and also in her o verseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There was a great improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 B C to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates[citation needed] a large incr ease in the average income of the population. In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny of Peisistr atos and then of his sons Hippias and Hipparchos. However, in 510 BC, at the ins tigation of the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, the Spartan king Cleomenes I he lped the Athenians overthrow the tyranny. Afterwards, Sparta and Athens promptly turned on each other, at which point Cleomenes I installed Isagoras as a pro-Sp artan archon. Eager to prevent Athens from becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthene s responded by proposing to his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution : that all citizens share in political power, regardless of status: that Athens become a "democracy". So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea th at, having overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were easily able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at restoring Isa goras.[16] The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of Athens and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians.