History Holidays in Greece 

Article by Fiona Elliot. Edited by Claire Stratton. Additional Research by Ellie Veryard. 

I’ve had numerous different holiday experiences in Greece. Admittedly, a few of them consisted of a few too many lemonades and resulted in sketchy recollections of my time there. However, I’ve also had the fantastic opportunity to discover some of its exceptional history, including visiting the Acropolis. This site of outstanding beauty and significant history means a great deal to the Greeks and is held probably in even greater regards by its tourists. It even has its own very helpful tube stop, complete with pictures if, like me, you find both public transport and the Greek alphabet more than a tad confusing. 

The Acropolis was built in 432 BC just before the Peloponnesian wars and remarkably a great deal of it is still standing. To put it simply the acropolis is simply amazing! It hosts a wide range of structures and boasts a theatre amongst its fabulous temples and statues. Undoubtedly this demonstrates the ancient Greek’s dedication and superiority in this field. I know I sound like a tour guide, but the ancient Greeks simply did nothing by halves. Just like their architecture, it seems that nothing could be simple and if something was worth fighting for they’d go all out, even if this meant inner turmoil and constant battles within different areas of the country. One such dispute existed over who held the most power within Greece. There was no obvious leading city which could act as a capital, as they all differed greatly, with their own individual monarchs and rulers. The only real unity that existed between them were the similarities in language and religion, so huge wars took place between its cities rivalling for supreme power that stretched over hundreds of years. 

One of the most notable examples of friction involved the city states of Sparta and Athens. The Peloponnesian war between them (431-404 BC) took place primarily over differences in industry and the running of the cities and therefore their access to trade, as well as their position in the running and layout of Greece. Although today Athens is the capital and can boast achievements such as holding the Olympic Games (the stadium again helpfully labelled), in the past its position was far from certain. Both Sparta and Athens considered themselves superior and the Spartans feared that their powerful city would face strong competition from Athens. Sparta boasted greater military and political power and therefore played a vital role defeating cities including Athens. Its power and prestige was certainly significant as it was the only state to have a full time army, with all male citizens raised to be soldiers. The city state also greatly relied on Helots; people belonging to the land that they had captured, to increase their numbers. Giving Sparta a massive advantage in terms of military power and thus contributed significantly to its long military success. Sparta remained wary of other states and their growing powers, so remained isolated with few dealings with others, except the capture of them, whereas other cities used trade alliances to their advantage. Sparta was able to stretch out its control even more in exchange for protection. 

The city state and the people of Sparta demonstrate one of history’s great triumphs with huge victories against their rivals such as with the battle of Thermopylae in 490 BC. in which they fought against the Persian army in defence of Greece, followed by an equally dramatic fall eventually being defeated by the Thebans in 371 BC. From this it was never able to reach the same heights again and finally the ancient city was destroyed by Visigoths in AD 396. Its individual military strength which had played such an important role in Sparta’s rise began to be insufficient to keep Sparta at the top. Athens’ growing trade and its expanding navy, something that Sparta lacked, allowed Athens to grow more powerful in comparison. The use of alliances also enabled its rise, whereas Sparta chose to alienate its neighbours and failed to liberate other Greek cities as promised. This alienation led to other cities to choose to side with Persia against their home enemy in the Corinthian war causing the subsequent fall. Alliances frequently changed and greatly affected the outcome of wars and the power of the cities. The fall of Sparta allowed Athens to eventually dominate against its competition, but was only officially labelled as the capital in the 1800s as it remains today.

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