Editing Europe (section)

===Classical antiquity===
{{Main|Classical antiquity}}
{{See also|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome}}
[[File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]] in [[Athens]] (432 BCE)]]

Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western [[democracy|democratic]] and [[rationalism|rationalist culture]] are often attributed to Ancient Greece.<ref name="Daly2013">{{cite book|first=Jonathan|last=Daly|title=The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aZPAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-1851-6|pages=7–9|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=28 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220428191428/https://books.google.com/books?id=9aZPAQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The Greek city-state, the [[polis]], was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece.<ref name="Daly2013"/> In 508 BCE, [[Cleisthenes]] instituted the world's first [[Athenian democracy|democratic]] system of government in [[Athens]].<ref name="BKDunn1992">{{Citation | first = John | last = Dunn | title = Democracy: the unfinished journey 508 BCE&nbsp;– 1993 CE | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-0-19-827934-1}}</ref> The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in [[philosophy]], [[humanism]] and [[rationalism]] under [[Aristotle]], [[Socrates]] and [[Plato]]; in [[historiography|history]] with [[Herodotus]] and [[Thucydides]]; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic poems of [[Homer]];<ref name="natgeo 76">National Geographic, 76.</ref> in drama with [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]]; in medicine with [[Hippocrates]] and [[Galen]]; and in science with [[Pythagoras]], [[Euclid]], and [[Archimedes]].<ref name="Heath">{{Cite book| first=Thomas Little | last=Heath| author-link= T. L. Heath| title=A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume I| publisher=[[Dover Publications]]| year=1981| isbn=978-0-486-24073-2}}</ref><ref name="Heath_Vol_2">{{Cite book| first=Thomas Little| last=Heath| author-link= T. L. Heath| title=A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume II| publisher=Dover publications| year=1981| isbn=978-0-486-24074-9}}</ref><ref>Pedersen, Olaf. ''Early Physics and Astronomy: A Historical Introduction''. 2nd edition. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1993.</ref> In the course of the 5th century BCE, several of the Greek [[city states]] would ultimately check the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Persian]] advance in Europe through the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], considered a pivotal moment in world history,<ref name="Strauss2005">{{cite book|first=Barry|last=Strauss|title=The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece – and Western Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQFtMcD5dOsC|year=2005|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-7453-1|pages=1–11|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=23 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623162126/https://books.google.com/books?id=nQFtMcD5dOsC|url-status=live}}</ref> as the 50 years of peace that followed are known as [[Fifth-century Athens|Golden Age of Athens]], the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation.

[[File:Roman Republic Empire map.gif|thumb|Animation showing the growth and division of [[Ancient Rome]]]]

Greece was followed by [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], which left its mark on [[Roman law|law]], [[politics]], [[Latin|language]], [[Roman engineering|engineering]], [[Roman architecture|architecture]], [[Centralized government|government]], and many more key aspects in western civilisation.<ref name="Daly2013"/> By 200 BCE, Rome had conquered [[Roman Italy|Italy]] and over the following two centuries it conquered [[Ancient Greece|Greece]], [[Hispania]] ([[Spain]] and [[Portugal]]), the [[North Africa]]n coast, much of the [[Middle East]], [[Gaul]] ([[France]] and [[Belgium]]), and [[Roman Britain|Britannia]] (England and [[Wales]]).

Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe by the turn of the millennium. The [[Roman Republic]] ended in 27 BCE, when [[Augustus]] proclaimed the [[Roman Empire]]. The two centuries that followed are known as the ''[[pax romana]]'', a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity and political stability in most of Europe.<ref name="mieawl">{{Cite book|last=McEvedy|first=Colin|title=The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1961}}</ref> The empire continued to expand under emperors such as [[Antoninus Pius]] and [[Marcus Aurelius]], who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], [[Picts|Pictish]] and [[Scottish people|Scottish]] tribes.<ref name="natgeo 123">National Geographic, 123.</ref><ref>Foster, Sally M., ''Picts, Gaels, and Scots: Early Historic Scotland''. Batsford, London, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7134-8874-3}}</ref> [[Christianity]] was [[Constantine the Great and Christianity|legalised]] by [[Constantine I]] in 313 CE after three centuries of [[Persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire|imperial persecution]]. Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of [[Byzantium]] (modern-day [[Istanbul]]) which was renamed [[Constantinople]] in his honour in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE the emperor [[Theodosius I|Theodosius]] outlawed pagan religions.<ref name="FriellWilliams2005">{{cite book|first1=Stephen|last1=Williams|first2=Gerard|last2=Friell|title=Theodosius: The Empire at Bay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I8KRAgAAQBAJ|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-78262-7|page=105|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=30 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530232720/https://books.google.com/books?id=I8KRAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> This is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in 476 CE; the closure of the pagan [[Platonic Academy|Platonic Academy of Athens]] in 529 CE;<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Greek Literature |last=Hadas |first=Moses |year=1950 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-01767-1 |pages=273, 327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOht3609JOMC&pg=PA273 |access-date=30 July 2022 |archive-date=21 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521051042/https://books.google.com/books?id=dOht3609JOMC&pg=PA273 |url-status=live }}</ref> or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. During most of its existence, the [[Byzantine Empire]] was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe.<ref>{{Harvnb|Laiou|Morisson|2007|pp=130–131}}; {{Harvnb|Pounds|1979|p=124}}.</ref>