Western Civilization I / Unit 4 WC1 0301 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Classical Age, 479 to 338 BCE: Thought Over Politics
Captions available
The idea
The Classical Age runs from the Persian defeat in four seventy-nine to Philip's conquest in three thirty-eight. The poleis peaked in wealth, war, art and thought, and the age is remembered for thought and art, not politics.
In practice
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as its summit.
Where people slip
Classical Greece gets conflated with Athens. Athens was richest, not typical.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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