Editing Ancient history (section)

===Europe===
{{Main|Neolithic Europe|Bronze Age Europe|Iron Age Europe}}

====Greece====
{{Main|Etruscans|Ancient Greece|Culture of ancient Rome}}
{{See also|Classical antiquity}}
[[File:Parthenon (30276156187).jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]], a temple dedicated to [[Athena]], located on the [[Acropolis]] in [[Athens]]]]

Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe beginning with the [[Cycladic culture]] on the islands of the [[Aegean Sea]] around 3200 BC,<ref>{{Cite book | last = Sansone | first = David | title = Ancient Greek civilization | page = 5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YJONdN0dNYQC&q=cycladic%20civilization&pg=PT27 | publisher = Wiley | year = 2011| isbn = 9781444358773 }}</ref> and the [[Minoan civilization|Minoan civilisation]] in Crete (2700–1500 BC).<ref name="Frucht2004">{{cite book| first = Richard C | last = Frucht|title=Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=PA847 |access-date=5 December 2012|date=31 December 2004 | publisher =ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-800-6|page= 847|quote= People appear to have first entered Greece as hunter-gatherers from southwest Asia about 50,000 years... of Bronze Age culture and technology laid the foundations for the rise of Europe's first civilization, Minoan Crete}}</ref><ref name="World and Its Peoples">{{cite book| title= World and Its Peoples| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5vHRWp8yqEC&pg=PA1458|access-date=5 December 2012|date=September 2009|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7902-4|page= 1458|quote=Greece was home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoan civilization of Crete, which developed around 2000 BC, and the Mycenaean civilization on the Greek mainland, which emerged about 400 years later}}</ref> The Minoans built large palaces decorated with frescoes and wrote in the [[Undeciphered writing systems|undeciphered script]] known as [[Linear A]]. The [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] civilization, the first distinctively Greek civilisation later emerged on the mainland (1600–1100 BC), consisting of a network of palace-centred states and writing the earliest [[Attested language|attested]] form of [[Greek language|Greek]] with the [[Linear B]] script.<ref name="World and Its Peoples" /> The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, along with several other civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean, during the regional event known as the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]].<ref>{{Cite book | last = Drews | first = Robert |author-link=Robert Drews | title = The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 BC | page = 3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bFpK6aXEWN8C&q=greece%20bronze%20age%20collapse | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1995| isbn = 0691025916 }}</ref> This ushered in a period known as the [[Greek Dark Ages]], from which written records are absent.

The [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Period]] in Greece is generally considered to have lasted from around the 8th century BC to the invasion by Xerxes in 480 BC. This period saw the expansion of the Greek world around the Mediterranean, with the founding of Greek city-states as far afield as Sicily in the west and the Black Sea in the east.{{sfn|Boardman|Hammond|1970|p=xiii}} Politically, the Archaic period in Greece saw the collapse of the power of the old aristocracies, with democratic reforms in Athens and the development of [[Spartan Constitution|Sparta's unique constitution]]. The end of the Archaic period also saw the rise of Athens, which would come to be a dominant power in the [[Classical Greece|Classical Period]], after the reforms of [[Solon]] and the tyranny of [[Pisistratus]].{{sfn|Boardman|Hammond|1970|p=xv}}

[[File:MacedonEmpire.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of Alexander's short-lived empire (334–323 BC). After his death the lands were divided between the ''[[Diadochi]]''.]]

The Classical Greek world was dominated throughout the 5th century BC by the major powers of [[Ancient Athens|Athens]] and [[Sparta]]. Through the [[Delian League]], Athens was able to convert pan-hellenist sentiment and fear of the Persian threat into a powerful empire, and this, along with the conflict between Sparta and Athens culminating in the [[Peloponnesian War]], was the major [[political]] development of the first part of the Classical period.{{sfn|Lewis|Boardman|Davies|Ostwald|1992|pp=xiii–xiv}} The period in Greek history from the death of Alexander the Great until the rise of the Roman empire and its conquest of Egypt in 30 BC is known as the [[Hellenistic period]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|p=99}} After Alexander's death, a series of wars between his successors eventually led to three large states being formed from parts of Alexander's conquests, each ruled by a dynasty founded by one of the successors. These were the [[Antigonid]]s, the [[Selucid]]s, and the [[Ptolemies]].{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=98}} These three kingdoms, along with smaller kingdoms, spread Greek culture and lifestyles into Asia and Egypt. These varying states eventually were conquered by Rome or the [[Parthian Empire]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=98-99}}

====Rome====
[[File:RomanEmpire 117 recoloured 2.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Roman Empire AD 117. The Senatorial provinces were acquired first under the [[Roman Republic]] and were under the [[Roman Senate]]'s control; the Imperial provinces were controlled directly by the Roman emperor.]]

[[Ancient Rome]] was a civilisation that grew out of the city-state of Rome, originating as a small agricultural community founded on the Italian peninsula in the 8th century BC, with influences from Greece and other Italian civilisations, such as the [[Etruscans]]. Traditionally Rome was founded as a [[Roman monarchy|monarchy]] that then became a [[Roman Republic|republic]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=106–107}} Rome expanded through the Italian peninsula through a series of wars in the fifth through the third centuries BC.{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=101}} This expansion brought the Roman republic into conflict with [[Carthage]], leading to a series of [[Punic Wars]], that ended with the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC.{{sfn|Parker|2017|pp=102–103}} Rome then expanded into Greece and the eastern Mediterranean,{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=110–111}} while a series of internal conflicts led to the republic becoming an empire ruled by an [[Roman emperor|emperor]] by the first century AD.{{sfn|Parker|2017|pp=104–105}} Throughout the first and second centuries AD, the Empire grew slightly while spreading Roman culture throughout its boundaries.{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=110–113}}

A number of factors led to the eventual [[decline of the Roman Empire]]. The western half of the empire, including [[Hispania]], [[Gaul]], and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the 5th century AD;{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=113}} the Eastern Roman Empire, governed from [[Constantinople]], is referred to as the [[Byzantine Empire]] after AD 476,{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=198–199}} the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the [[Middle Ages]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=150–151}}

====Late antiquity====
{{Main|Late antiquity}}
[[File:Invasions of the Roman Empire 1.png|thumb|upright=1.4|The [[Migration Period|Age of Migrations]] in Europe was deeply detrimental to the late [[Roman Empire]].]]

The Roman Empire underwent considerable social, cultural and organisational change starting with reign of [[Diocletian]], who began the custom of splitting the empire into eastern and [[Western Roman Empire|western]] halves ruled by multiple emperors.{{sfn|Parker|2017|pp=110–111}} [[Constantine the Great]] initiated the process of [[Christianization|Christianisation]] of the empire and established a new capital at [[Constantinople]].{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=112}} [[Migration Period|Migrations]] of [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]] disrupted Roman rule from the late 4th century onwards, culminating in the eventual [[Decline of the Roman Empire|collapse of the empire in the West]] in 476, replaced by the so-called [[Germanic monarchy|barbarian kingdoms]].{{sfn|Hart-Davis|2012|pp=150–151}} The resultant cultural fusion of [[Greco-Roman world|Greco-Roman]], Germanic and Christian traditions formed the cultural foundations of Europe. There has been attempt by scholars to connect European late antiquity to other areas in Eurasia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Humphries |first=Mark |date=2017 |title=Late Antiquity and World History |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sla.2017.1.1.8 |journal=Studies in Late Antiquity |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=8–37 |doi=10.1525/sla.2017.1.1.8 |issn=2470-2048}}</ref>

====Nomads and Iron Age peoples====
{{Further|Anglo-Saxons|Celts}}

The Celts were a diverse group of [[tribal societies]] in [[Iron Age Europe]]. [[Proto-Celtic]] culture formed in the [[Early Iron Age]] in Central Europe ([[Hallstatt culture|Hallstatt]] period, named for the site in present-day Austria). By the later Iron Age ([[La Tène culture|La Tène]] period), Celts had expanded over wide range of lands: as far west as [[Ireland]] and the [[Iberian Peninsula]], as far east as [[Galatia]] (central [[Anatolia]]), and as far north as [[Scotland]].{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} By the early centuries AD, following the expansion of the Roman Empire and the Great Migrations of Germanic peoples, Celtic culture had become restricted to the [[British Isles]].{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=114}}

The [[Huns]] were a nomadic people who formed a large state in Eastern Europe by about AD 400, and under their leader [[Attila]], they fought against both sections of the Roman Empire. However, after Attila's death, the state fell apart and the Huns' influence in history disappeared.{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=111}} The [[Huns|Hun-Xiongnu]] connection is controversial at best and is often disputed but is also not completely discredited.{{sfn|Wright|2011|p=60}}{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2015|p=188}}

Migration of Germanic peoples to Britain from what is now northern [[Germany]] and southern [[Scandinavia]] is attested from the 5th century.{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=163}} Groups of [[Goths]] migrated into western Europe, with the [[Ostrogoths]] eventually settling in Italy before being conquered by the [[Lombards]].{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=162}} A related people, the [[Visigoths]], settled in Spain, founding a kingdom that lasted until it was conquered by Islamic rulers in the AD 700s.{{sfn|Parker|2017|p=163}}

Several Indo-european speaking peoples inhabited the [[Balkans|Balkan]] peninsula including the [[Thracians]] and [[Illyrians]], that were divided into many tribes. The first Illyrian tribe to create its own kingdom was the [[Enchelei]], which formed its own state around the 8th-7th century BC{{sfn|Šašel Kos|2004|p=500}} and reached the height of their power under king [[Bardylis]].{{sfn|Šašel Kos|2002|p=106|ps= "... Bardylis , the first attested Illyrian king..."}} The [[Ardiani]] were infamous for their piracy and [[Illyro-Roman Wars|wars against the Roman Empire]], for the [[Illyro-Roman Wars#First Illyrian War|first time between 229 BC-228 BC]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilkes |first=J. J. |title=The Illyrians |year=1992 |isbn=0-631-19807-5 |page=160|publisher=Wiley }}</ref> then for a [[Illyro-Roman Wars#Second Illyrian War|second time during 220 BC-219 BC]]<ref>Hannibal: A History of the Art of War Among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 B.C. by Theodore Ayrault Dodge, {{ISBN|0-306-80654-1}}, 1995, Page 164, "... Hannibal was anxious to make his descent on Italy before the Romans had got through with the Gallic and Illyrian wars. He had made many preparations to this end, not only in men and material, but in reconnoitring..."</ref> and for a [[Illyro-Roman Wars#Third Illyrian War|third time during 168 BC]].<ref>Battles of the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Chronological Compendium of 667 Battles to 31Bc, from the Historians of the Ancient World (Greenhill Historic Series) by John Drogo Montagu, {{ISBN|1-85367-389-7}}, 2000, page 47</ref>