Documents for "Ancient History, Greece":

• Abydos ancient town of Phrygia, Asia Minor, on the Asian side of the Hellespont opposite Sestos, in present-day Turkey. It was originally a Milesian colony. Near there Xerxes built his bridge of boats in...

• Acarnania region of ancient Greece, between the Achelous River and the Ionian Sea. The chief city was Stratos. The Acarnanians sided with Athens during the Peloponnesian War, and Athens helped Acarnania to...

• Achaea region of ancient Greece, in the northern part of the Peloponnesus on the Gulf of Corinth. It lay between Sicyon and Elis. There the Achaeans supposedly remained when driven from other parts of...

• Achaean League confederation of cities on the Gulf of Corinth. The First Achaean League, about which little is known, was formed presumably before the 5th cent. BC and lasted through the 4th cent. BC Its purpose...

• Achaeans people of ancient Greece, of unknown origin. In Homer, the Achaeans are specifically a Greek-speaking people of S Thessaly. Historically, they seem to have appeared in the Peloponnesus during the...

• Acrocorinthus acropolis, or citadel, of Corinth , overlooking the ancient city. Some ruins of the acropolis remain. The Acrocorinthus was the site of a temple of Aphrodite. It was strongly fortified in the Middle Ages. Below gushed the fountain...

• acropolis [Gr.,=high point of the city], elevated, fortified section of various ancient Greek cities.

• Actium promontory, NW Acarnania, Greece, at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. There are vestiges of several temples and an ancient town. At Actium was fought the naval battle (31 BC) in which the forces...

• Aegean civilization term for the Bronze Age cultures of pre-Hellenic Greece. The complexity of those early civilizations was not suspected before the excavations of archaeologists in the late 19th cent. The most...

• Aegospotamos river of ancient Thrace flowing into the Hellespont. At its mouth in 405 BC occurred the culminating battle of the Peloponnesian War. Lysander and his Spartan fleet had come north to cut the grain supply of Athens. The Athenian fleet under Conon came to Aegospotamos and at first vainly tried to induce the Spartans to fight...

• Aeolia see Aeolis.

• Aeolians see Greece.

• Aeolis or Aeolia , ancient region of the west coast of Asia Minor (in present-day Turkey). Aeolis was not a geographic term but a collective term for the cities founded there by the Aeolians, a branch of the...

• Aetolia region of ancient Greece, N of the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of Calydon, E of the Achelous River (separating it from Acarnania). Little is known of the early population of Aetolia, but later...

• Aetolian League confederation centering in the cities of Aetolia. It was formed in the 4th cent. BC and began to gain power in the 3d cent. in opposing the Achaean League and the Macedonians. At its height, the league stretched across Greece from sea to sea, including Locris, Malis, Dolopes, part of Thessaly, Phocis, and Acarnania. Its federal structure consisted of...

• agora [Gr.,=market], in ancient Greece, the public square or marketplace of a city. In early Greek history the agora was primarily used as a place for public assembly; later it functioned mainly as a...

• Alexandria Troas ancient Greek seaport city, Mysia, NW Asia Minor, called Troas in the Bible. It was important under the Greeks and Romans.

• amphictyony in ancient Greece, a league connected with maintaining a temple or shrine. There were a number of these, but by far the most important was the Great, or Delphic, Amphictyony (or simply the...

• Amphipolis ancient city of Macedonia, on the Strymon (Struma) River near the sea and NE of later Thessaloníki. The place was known as Ennea Hodoi [nine ways] before it was settled and was of interest because...

• Antalcidas, Peace of see Corinthian War.

• Apollonia [Gr.,=of Apollo], name of several ancient Greek towns. The most important was a port in Illyria on the Adriatic. It was founded by Corinthians and was later a Greek and a Roman intellectual center...

• Arcadia region of ancient Greece, in the middle of the Peloponnesus, without a seaboard, and surrounded and dissected by mountains. The Arcadians, relatively isolated from the rest of the world, lived a...

• archons [Gr.,=leaders], in ancient Athens and other Greek cities, officers of state. Originally in Athens there were three archons: the archon eponymos (so called because the year was named after him), who was the chief officer of the state; the archon basileus, who was primarily connected with sacred rites; and the archon polemarchos (the polemarch, or military commander), who—theoretically, at least—had military leadership. Six more archons, the thesmothetae (thesmothetes), were later added; they were junior officers, generally in charge of the courts. The archons were elected, and after they had served and their records had been approved, they entered...

• Areopagus [Gr.,=hill of Ares], rocky hill, 370 ft (113 m) high, NW of the Acropolis of Athens, famous as the sacred meeting place of the prime council of Athens. This council, also called the Areopagus,...

• Argolis region of ancient Greece in the NE Peloponnesus. It was roughly identical with the Argive plain and was the area dominated by the city of Argos.

• Argos city of ancient Greece, in NE Peloponnesus, 3 mi (4.8 km) inland from the Gulf of Argos, near the modern Nauplia. It was occupied from the early Bronze Age and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad as the kingdom of Diomed. Argos was the center of Argolis and in the 7th cent. BC, under King Pheidon, dominated much of the Peloponnesus. For centuries it was one of the most powerful Greek...

• Artemisium cape, N Euboea (now Évvoia), Greece, named for a great temple of Artemis. Off the cape in 480 BC was fought a naval battle of the Persian Wars. The delay won by the defense of Thermopylae under...

• Attica region of ancient Greece, a triangular area at the eastern end of central Greece, around Athens. According to Greek legend, the four Attic tribes were founded by Ion; in later legend Theseus combined 12 townships into a single state. This process of unification, which probably occurred over a...

• Aulis small port of ancient Greece, in Boeotia, E central Greece. From there the Greek fleet sailed against Troy after the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Its ancient temple of Artemis is in ruins.

• Bactria ancient Greek kingdom in central Asia. Its capital was Bactra, present-day Balkh in N Afghanistan. Before the Greek conquest, the region was an eastern province of the Persian Empire. It prospered as the area for transmitting Siberian and Indian metals and goods to the...

• Boeotia region of ancient Greece. It lay N of Attica, Megaris, and the Gulf of Corinth. The early inhabitants were from Thessaly. A number of small cities scattered over the rough country—mountainous in...

• Bucephalus favorite horse of Alexander the Great. There are legends of his speed and the wondrous deeds that Alexander performed while riding him. He died in 326 BC after the battle on the Hydaspes River...

• Byzantium ancient city of Thrace, on the site of the present-day Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Greeks from Megara in 667 BC, it early rose to importance because of its position on the Bosporus. In the...

• Chaeronea ancient town of Boeotia, Greece, in the Cephissus (now Kifisós) River valley and NW of Thebes. There the Athenians and Thebans were defeated (338 BC) by the Macedonians under Philip II, and in 86...

• Chalcedon ancient Greek city of Asia Minor, on the Bosporus. It was founded by Megara on the shore opposite Byzantium in 685 BC Taken by the Persians and recovered by the Greeks, it was later a possession...

• city-state in ancient Greece, Italy, and Medieval Europe, an independent political unit consisting of a city and surrounding countryside. The first city-states were in Sumer, but they reached their peak in...

• Cnidus or Cnidos , ancient Greek city of Caria, SW Asia Minor, on Cape Krio, in present SW Asian Turkey. It was partly on the peninsula and partly on an island that had been created by cutting through the peninsula...

• Cnossus see Knossos.

• Constitution of Athens treatise by Aristotle or a member of his school, written in the late 4th cent. BC It was lost until discovered on Egyptian papyrus in 1890. It is a history of the Athenian government and an account...

• Corinthian War (395 BC-86 BC), armed conflict between Corinth, Argos, Thebes, and Athens on one side and Sparta on the other. Angered by Sparta's tyrannical overlordship in Greece after the Peloponnesian War,...

• Croton Italy: see Crotona.

• Crotona Croton, or Kroton , ancient city, S Italy, on the east coast of Bruttium (now Calabria), a colony of Magna Graecia founded c.708 BC There Pythagoras established his school, which exerted a notable political and moral influence. The nearby temple of Hera Lacinia was the religious shrine of Magna Graecia...

• Cyme ancient Greek city of W Asia Minor, on the Ionian Sea and N of the present Smyrna in W Asian Turkey. It was the largest and most important of the 12 cities of Aeolis. In the late 5th cent. BC,...

• Delian League confederation of Greek city-states under the leadership of Athens. The name is used to designate two distinct periods of alliance, the first 478-404 BC, the second 378-338 BC The first alliance...

• Delium town of ancient Greece, a port in E Boeotia, named for its temple of Apollo similar to the one at Delos. In the Peloponnesian War the Athenians were defeated (424 BC) by the Boeotians there;...

• Delphi locality in Phocis, Greece, near the foot of the south slope of Mt. Parnassós , c.6 mi (10 km) northeast of the port of Cirrha. It was the seat of the Delphic oracle , the most famous and most powerful of ancient Greece. The oracle originated in the worship of an earth-goddess, and later legend ascribed it to Gaea. It passed to Apollo ; some stories say he won it by killing the Python, others that it descended to him peacefully through Themis and Phoebe. The Delphic oracle was the preeminent shrine of Apollo, but in winter, when...

• Delphic oracle see Delphi , Greece.

• Diadochi [Gr.,=successors], the Macedonian generals and administrators who succeeded Alexander the Great. Alexander's empire, the largest that the world had known to that time, was quickly built. At his death in 323 BC it disintegrated even more quickly. Alexander's more important followers, later...

• Dorians people of ancient Greece. Their name was mythologically derived from Dorus, son of Hellen. Originating in the northwestern mountainous region of Epirus and SW Macedonia, they migrated through central Greece and into the Peloponnesus probably between 1100 and 950 BC, defeating and...

• Eleusis ancient city of Attica, Greece, 12 mi (20 km) NW of Athens. Through ancient times it was the seat of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There was a large temple to Demeter. The Eleusinian games, also held there, were not connected with the mysteries. Excavation of the cemetery began in 1952; graves were found that date from the...

• Elis region of ancient Greece, in W Peloponnesus, W of Arcadia. It was divided into three parts—Elis proper, Pisatis, and Triphylia. A plain watered by the Alpheus and the Peneus rivers, Elis was...

• Ephesus ancient Greek city of Asia Minor, near the mouth of the Caÿster River (modern Küçük Menderes), in what is today W Turkey, S of Smyrna (now Izmir). One of the greatest of the Ionian cities, it...

• ephors [Gr.,=overseers], in ancient Greece, magistrates in several Dorian states. In Sparta they comprised an executive, legislative, and judicial board of five Spartan citizens. This annually elected...

• Epidaurus ancient city of Greece, on an inlet of the Saronic Gulf, NE Peloponnesus. It was celebrated as the site of the temple of Asclepius , which dates from the 4th cent. BC and is renowned for its beautiful...

• Epirus ancient country of Greece, on the Ionian Sea and W of Macedon and Thessaly, a region now occupied by NW Greece and S Albania. At the time of Homer, Epirus was known as the home of the oracle of...

• Eretria ancient city of Greece, in Euboea (now Évvoia), SE of Chalcis (now Khalkís), its rival. In the 7th and 6th cent. BC, Eretria sent out many colonists to islands and coasts of the N Aegean. It...

• Gortyna ancient city, S central Crete. Under Rome it was one of the leading cities of the island. Many ancient Greek remains have been discovered on the site. An inscription dating from c.450 BC of a code...

• Helice or Helike , ancient city of Achaea, N Peloponnesus, near the mouth of the Selinous River, 20 mi (32 km) E of Pátrai. Noted for its sanctuary of Poseidon, Helice was a seat of the First Achaean...

• Helike city, ancient Greece: see Helice.

• Helladic culture see Mycenaean civilization.

• helots see Sparta , Greece.

• Heraclea Pontica ancient Greek city, a port on the southern shore of the Black Sea. Founded in the 6th cent. BC by colonists from Megara and Boeotia, it rose to a position of great prominence, controlling much of...

• Hieron For Greek rulers of Syracuse named thus, use Hiero.

• Himera ancient city on the north coast of Sicily, founded by Greeks in the 7th cent. BC Here in 480 BC (a traditional date) forces led by Gelon routed the Carthaginians led by Hamilcar. Years later the...

• Hissarlik see Troy , ancient city.

• hoplite heavy infantry soldier in the armies of classical Greece. Hoplites were usually protected by helmets, cuirasses, and leg armor. They carried large shields, javelins, heavy swords, and sometimes battle-axes and...

• Ilion see Troy.

• Ilium see Troy.

• Ionia ancient region of Asia Minor. It occupied a narrow coastal strip on the E Mediterranean (in present-day W Turkey) as well as the neighboring Aegean Islands, which now mainly belong to Greece. In...

• Knossos or Cnossus , ancient city of Crete, on the north coast, near modern Iráklion. The site was occupied long before 3000 BC, and it was the center of an important Bronze Age culture. It is from a study of the...

• Kroton ancient city, Italy: see Crotona.

• Laconia or Lacedaemon , ancient region, S Peloponnesus, Greece, bounded on the W by Messenia and on the N by Arcadia and Argolis. On the Eurotas (now Evrotás), the principal river, stood Sparta ,...

• Lampsacus ancient Greek city of NW Asia Minor, on the Hellespont (now Dardanelles) opposite Callipolis (now Gallipoli). It was colonized in the 7th cent. BC by Greeks from Phocaea. Artaxerxes I assigned the...

• Laodicea name of several Greek cities of Asia and Asia Minor built by the Seleucids in the 3d cent. BC The most important, Laodicea ad Lycum, was N of Colossae near the present Denizli. On the trade route...

• Leuctra village of ancient Greece, in Boeotia, 7 mi (11.3 km) SW of Thebes. There the Spartans were defeated (371 BC) by the Thebans under Epaminondas. A brilliant tactical success, the battle also dealt...

• Locris region of central Greece. The state was probably in existence before the arrival of the Phocians. The rise of Doris and Phocis split the original region into western and eastern portions. Eastern...

• Long Walls Greece: see Piraiévs.

• Lydia ancient country, W Asia Minor, N of Caria and S of Mysia (now NW Turkey). The tyrant Gyges was the founder of the Mermnadae dynasty, which lasted from c.700 BC to 550 BC The little kingdom grew to...

• Lydia, Mount Turkey: see Mycale.

• Macedon ancient country, roughly equivalent to the modern region of Macedonia. In the history of Greek culture Macedon had its single significance in producing the conquerors and armies who created the Hellenistic...

• Magna Graecia [Lat.,=great Greece], Greek colonies of S Italy. The Greek overseas expansion of the 8th cent. BC founded a number of towns that became the centers of a new, thriving Greek territory. They were on...

• Magnesia two ancient cities of Lydia, W Asia Minor (now W Turkey). They were colonies of the Magnetes, a tribe of E Thessaly. One city (Magnesia ad Maeandrum), SE of Smyrna (Izmir), was later colonized by...

• Mantinea city of ancient Greece, in E central Arcadia (now Arkadhía). In the Peloponnesian War a coalition led by Mantinea and Argos and urged on by Athens was defeated (418 BC) by Sparta at Mantinea. It...

• Marathon village and plain, ancient Greece, 20 mi (32 km) NE of Athens. Here the Athenians and Plataeans under Miltiades defeated a Persian army in 490 BC (see Persian Wars ).

• Messene ancient city, central Messenia (now Messinías prov.), Greece. It was founded (c.369 BC) under Theban auspices to be a capital and fort for the Messenians, whom the battle of Leuctra had just freed...

• Messenia ancient region of SW Greece, in the Peloponnesus and corresponding to the modern nome of Messinías. Excavation has revealed an important center of Mycenaean culture at Pylos dating from the 13th cent. BC From the 8th cent. BC the Messenians were engaged in a series of revolts against expanding Sparta. After the First Messenian War the Spartans annexed (c.700 BC) the...

• Metapontum ancient city of Magna Graecia , on the Gulf of Taranto, SE Italy. Settled by Greeks, c.7th cent. BC, it flourished and gave refuge to Pythagoreans expelled from Crotona. Pythagoras taught and died there. There are remains of a...

• Miletus ancient seaport of W Asia Minor, in Caria, on the mainland not far from Sámos. It was occupied by Greeks in the settlement of the E Aegean (c.1000 BC) and became one of the principal cities of...

• Minoan civilization ancient Cretan culture representing a stage in the development of the Aegean civilization. It is named for the legendary King Minos of Crete. The culture was divided by Sir Arthur Evans into three periods that include the whole of the Bronze Age: Early Minoan (c.3000 BC-2200 BC), Middle Minoan (c.2200 BC-1500 BC), and Late Minoan (c.1500 BC-1000 BC). Early Minoan saw the slow rise...

• Mycale promontory, W Asia Minor, opposite Samós island. The center of the Ionian League was there, in the temple of Poseidon. In 479 BC the Greeks destroyed the Persian fleet at Mycale. This ended the...

• Mycenae ancient city of Greece, in Argolis. In historical times it had little importance and was usually dependent on Argos. Its significance is in its remote past as a center of Mycenaean civilization. The...

• Mycenaean civilization an ancient Aegean civilization known from the excavations at Mycenae and other sites. They were first undertaken by Heinrich Schliemann and others after 1876, and they helped to revise the early history of Greece. Divided into Early Helladic (c.2800-2000 BC), Middle Helladic (c.2000-1500 BC), and Late Helladic (c.1500-1100 BC)...

• Neapolis [Gr.,=new city], name of many cities in ancient Greek and Roman times. The most important is the modern Naples , Italy.

• Nemea city of ancient Greece, in N Argolis. At the temple of Zeus were held the Nemean games, which from 573 BC were one of the four Panhellenic festivals; the games were held in the second and fourth...

• Nicopolis [Gr.,=city of victory], ancient city, NW Greece, in Epirus. It was founded by Octavian (later Augustus) to celebrate the victory (31 BC) at Actium, which is nearby. The city largely eclipsed...

• Olbia Ionic Greek colony of Miletus, founded at the beginning of the 6th cent. BC It is on the right bank of the Buh River between Mykolayiv and Ochakov, S central Ukraine. The leading Milesian colony...

• Olympia ancient city, important center of the worship of Zeus in ancient Greece, in Elis near the Alpheus (now Alfiós) R. It was the scene of the Olympic games. The great temple of Zeus was especially...

• Olympiad unit of a chronological era of ancient Greece, a four-year period, each one beginning with the Olympic games. Timaeus (c.356-c.260 BC) of Sicily was the first to use, as a check on chronology,...

• Olynthus ancient city of Greece, on the peninsula of Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí), NE of Potidaea. A league of Chalcidic cities grew up in the late 5th cent. BC, and Olynthus, as the head of this...

• Orchomenus ancient city of Boeotia, central Greece, NW of Lake Copaïs. After 1600 BC it was an important center of the Mycenaean civilization. In later times the city was eclipsed by Thebes. Near Orchomenus,...

• ostracism ancient Athenian method of banishing a public figure. It was introduced after the fall of the family of Pisistratus. Each year the assembly took a preliminary vote to decide whether a vote of ostracism should be held. If a majority approved holding an ostracism, a day was set for the voting. When the polling...

• Pella ancient city of Greek Macedonia, about 24 mi (39 km) NW of Thessalonica (now Thessaloníki). It became the capital of the Macedonian kingdom in the 4th cent. BC It prospered under Macedonian rule...

• Peloponnesian League see Sparta.

• Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC, decisive struggle in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta. It ruined Athens, at least for a time. The rivalry between Athens' maritime domain and Sparta's land empire was of long standing. Athens under Pericles (from 445 BC) had become a bastion of Greek democracy, with a foreign policy of regularly intervening to help local democrats. The Spartans, who favored oligarchies like their own, resented and...

• Persian Wars 500 BC-449 BC, series of conflicts fought between Greek states and the Persian Empire. The writings of Herodotus , who was born c.484 BC, are the great source of knowledge of the history of the wars. At their beginning the Persian Empire of Darius I included all of W Asia as well as Egypt. On the coast of Asia...

• phalanx ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of the...

• Pharsalus ancient city, Thessaly, Greece. Near there in 48 BC, Julius Caesar decisively defeated Pompey, who had a much larger force. Lucan's Bellum Civile (often called Pharsalia ) is an epic of the civil...

• Phigalia ancient city of Greece, in SW Arcadia (now Arkadhía). It gives its name to the Phigalian Marbles, a frieze c.100 ft (30 m) long and 2 ft (61 cm) high, in high relief, representing battles between the Lapithae, a legendary people from Thessaly, and the Centaurs and between the Amazons and the...

• Philippi ancient city, E Macedonia. Inhabited by Thracians and then Thasians, it was renamed (probably 356 BC) by Philip II of Macedon, who developed and fortified it. Near the city was fought the decisive...

• Phocis ancient region of central Greece. It included Delphi, Mt. Parnassus, and Elatea; Boeotia (now Voiotía) was on the east, and the Gulf of Corinth was on the south. After the First Sacred War of...

• Pieria region of ancient Macedonia, W of the Thermaic Gulf (the modern Gulf of Thessaloníki). It included Mt. Pierus, an early seat of the worship of Orpheus and the Muses, and Mt. Olympus. The Muses...

• Plataea ancient city of Greece, in S Boeotia (now Voiotía), on the slope of Mt. Cithaeron (Kithairón). Plataea had voluntarily passed from Theban to Athenian protection before the Persian Wars and stood by Athens at Marathon (490 BC). In 479 BC, Plataea was the scene of the decisive defeat of the Persians by the Greeks under Pausanias (with Aristides commanding the fleet). At the...

• Potidaea ancient city, NE Greece, at the narrowest point of the Pallene (now Kassándra) peninsula in Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí). It was a Corinthian colony (c.600 BC) but joined the Athenian-dominated...

• Priene ancient Ionian city of W Asia Minor, near the mouth of the Maeander (now Menderes) River. It was rebuilt in the 4th cent. BC and was the site of a temple of Athena Polias. Carefully planned, it is...

• Pydna ancient town of Pieria, S Macedonia, near the Gulf of Salonica (now Thessaloníki). Nearby in 168 BC the Romans under Aemilius Paullus defeated the Macedonians under Perseus and thus ended...

• Pylos ancient harbor, Messenia, SW Greece, on a bay of the Ionian Sea. Excavations have revealed a great Mycenaean palace of the 13th cent. BC, perhaps the dwelling of King Nestor. Six hundred clay tablets were found there which were important in the decipherment of the late Minoan script (see Mycenaean civilization ). The modern town of Pílos, formerly known as Navarino, grew up on the south shore of the bay. The Bay of Pylos was the scene of an Athenian naval victory over Sparta in 425 BC and of the battle of...

• Pythian games in ancient Greece, games held at Delphi every four years (the third of each Olympiad). They included musical, literary, and athletic contests. The games honored Apollo and took their name from...

• Salamis ancient city on Cyprus, once the principal city. St. Paul visited it on his first missionary journey (Acts 13.5). Excavations there revealed the ruins of a Greek theater; there are also many Roman...

• Salamis island, E Greece, in the Saronic Gulf, W of Athens. It early belonged to Aegina but was later under Athenian control, except for a brief period after it was occupied (c.600 BC) by Megara. In the Persian...

• Sestos ancient town on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont (now Dardanelles) opposite Abydos (in present-day Turkey). It was the scene of the story of Hero and Leander. It was there that Xerxes entered Thrace on his invasion of Greece, crossing the Hellespont on a bridge of boats. The city was later controlled by Athens and remained important in Roman...

• Seven Wise Men of Greece list of men drawn from among the outstanding politicians and political philosophers of ancient Greece. Although such listings differed widely, a usual one included Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus,...

• Sicyon ancient city of Greece, in the Peloponnesus, NW of Corinth and 2 mi (3.2 km) S of the Gulf of Corinth. Sicyon was founded by Argos and attained its greatest power under the tyrant Cleisthenes in the 6th cent. BC Under the leadership of the general Aratus , Sicyon joined (3d cent. BC) the Achaean League. With the destruction (146 BC) of Corinth by the Romans, Sicyon briefly regained power but subsequently declined. Sicyon was an important center of...

• Sparta city of ancient Greece, capital of Laconia, on the Eurotas (Evrótas) River in the Peloponnesus.

• Tegea ancient city of Greece, SE Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus. From the middle of the 6th cent. BC until the Spartan defeat at the battle of Leuctra (371 BC), it was dominated by Sparta. In 362 BC Tegea...

• Thívai see Thebes , Greece.

• Thebes chief city of Boeotia, in ancient Greece. It was originally a Mycenaean city. Thebes is rich in associations with Greek legend and religion (see Oedipus ; the Seven against Thebes ; Epigoni ). Sometime before 1000 BC, Thebes was settled by Boeotians and rapidly replaced Orchomenus as the region's leading city. At the end of the 6th cent. BC it began its struggle with Athens to maintain...

• Thermopylae [Gr.,=hot gates, from hot mineral springs nearby], pass, E central Greece, SE of Lamía, between the cliffs of Mt. Oeta and the Malic Gulf. Silt accumulation has gradually widened the pass. In...

• Thespiae ancient city of Greece, in S Boeotia, near Mt. Helicon (now Elikón) and SW of Thebes. The Thespians fought (479 BC) against the Persians at Thermopylae and Plataea. They joined (after 382 BC) the...

• Thessaly largest ancient region of Greece in N central Greece. It corresponded roughly to the present-day nomes of Larissa and Tríkkala, which form part of the modern region known as Thessaly. Ancient...

• Thirty Tyrants oligarchy of ancient Athens (404-403 BC). It was created by Lysander under Spartan auspices after the Peloponnesian War. Critias and Theramenes were prominent members. It was overthrown at Piraeus...

• Tiryns ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium BC It was a city of splendor...

• Troas or the Troad , region about ancient Troy , on the northwest coast of Asia Minor, in present NW Turkey. Traversed by Mt. Ida (Kaz Daği) and strategically located on the Hellespont (Dardanelles), it was involved in various struggles to...

• Troy ancient city made famous by Homer's account of the Trojan War. It is also called Ilion or, in Latin, Ilium. Its site is almost universally accepted as the mound now named Hissarlik, in Asian Turkey, c.4 mi (6.4 km) from the mouth of the Dardanelles. Accepting...

• tyrant in ancient history, ruler who gained power by usurping the legal authority. The word is perhaps of Lydian origin and carried with it no connotation of moral censure. With the growth of the...