General Historical Remarks

Abstract

The description “Ancient Greece” refers to the period roughly from 800 b.c.e. to 150 b.c.e., from Homer to the time when Rome established political hegemony over the Greek world. The first Olympic games took place in 776 b.c.e.; democracy was gradually introduced in the political life of the city-states from 600 b.c.e. onwards. The Greeks defended their freedom against the Persians in the “Persian wars” (500-480), after which the great classical period of Greece under the cultural leadership of Athens lasted until the Macedonian Kings Philip and Alexander the Great established monarchic rules around 330 and spread Greek culture over the whole ancient world in Hellenistic times, 300-50 b.c.e. Science and philosophy remained the domain of Greeks until the end of the Roman empire. Boetius, the “last Roman “ was the first writer to translate mathematical texts from Greek into Latin, about 500 c.e. The Romans ran their Imperium without any mathematics.