Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Bronze Age (c. 3200-1050 BCE) to the end of classical antiquity (c. CE 500). The Bronze Age gave rise to early Greek civilizations around the Aegean Sea, including the Minoan and Mcyceanean civilizations. After the three centuries following the collapse of Mycenaean Greece known as the Greek Dark Ages, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, notably the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.
Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a powerful influence on ancient Rome, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and Europe. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization.
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