Classical (480-323 BC)

Athenian dominance in a Greek confederacy (Delian League)

Immense flowering of art, drama, architecture, education.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato

Pericles

Empire based on naval predominance

Evolving democracy

Peloponnesian wars between Athens and Sparta (431-404)

Alexander the Great 323BC