The Classical Period

(1200 BCE – 455 CE)

v    Homeric or Heroic Period (1200 – 800 BCE)

Greek legends are passed along orally, including Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey. This is a chaotic period of warrior-princes, wandering sea-traders, and fierce pirates.

v    Classical Greek Period (800 – 200 BCE)

Greek writers and philosophers such as Gorgias, Aesop, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides, and Sophocles.  The fifth century (499- 400 BCE) in particular is renowned as The Golden Age of Greece.  This is the sophisticated period of the polis, or individual city-state, and early democracy.  Some of the world’s finest art, poetry, drama, architecture, and philosophy originate in Athens.

v    Classical Roman Period (200 BCE – 455 CE)

Greece’s cultures gives way to Roman power when Rome conquers Greece in 146 CE.  The Roman Republic was traditionally founded in 509 BCE, but it is limited in size until later.  Playwrights of this time include Plautus and Terence.  After nearly 500 years as a Republic, Rome slides into dictatorship under Julius Caesar and finally into a monarchial empire under Caesar Augustus in 27 CE.  This later period is known as the Roman Imperial Period.  Roman writers include Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.  Roman philosophers include Marcus Aurelius and Lucretius.  Roman rhetoricians include Cicero and Quintilian.

v    Patristic Period (70 AD – 455 CE)

Early Christian writings appear such as Saint Augustine, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome.  This is the period in which Saint Jerome first compiles the Bible, when Christianity spread across Europe, and the Roman Empire suffered its dying convulsions.