Ancient Greece (c. 800–146 BCE) was a collection of independent city-states, including Athens and Sparta, that laid the foundations of Western democracy, philosophy, and culture. From the Archaic period’s rise of the polis and Homeric epics to the Classical age of the Persian Wars, Periclean Athens, and the Peloponnesian War, Greek civilization produced enduring achievements in art, architecture (Parthenon), drama, and science. Thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle shaped philosophy, while Alexander the Great’s conquests spread Hellenistic influence across the Mediterranean and Near East until Roman domination.