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Ancient Greeks lived in the country called Greece, as well as the regions of what are now the countries Bulgaria and Turkey.
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Ancient Greece eventually spread as far as where France is today.
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Ancient Greece as an empire was at its most powerful between 2000 BC and 146 BC.
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The very first Olympics were held in Ancient Greece in 776 BC. They were held in the Greek City called Olympia.
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The word marathon originated from Pheidippides's run from Athens to Sparta in 490 BC. He ran from one city to the other in order to ask for help in the Battle of Marathon against the Persians.
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The first two letters of the Greek alphabet - alpha and beta - made up the word alphabet. Their alphabet was the first with vowels.
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The Archaic Period of Ancient Greece began in 800 BC and ended in 508 BC. During the Archaic Period Homer wrote the Odyssey and the Illiad. Democracy also began at the end of this period.
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The Classical Period of Ancient Greece began with the start of democracy and ended when Alexander the Great died in 323 BC. During the Classical Period Socrates and Plato became great philosophers and the ancient cities of Sparta and Athens went to war.
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The Hellenistic Period began when Alexander the Great died in 323 BC and ended when Rome conquered Greece in 146 BC. Hellenistic is derived from the word that Greeks call themselves - 'hellens'.
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The Ancient Greeks would lie on their side to eat.
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The yo-yo was invented by the Ancient Greeks. Next to the doll it is the oldest toy in history.
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After the Romans conquered Ancient Greece they copied them in almost every way, including their architecture, their stories of gods, their language, and the many forms of the arts such as music and literature and art itself.
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Ancient Greece had trial by jury. However they had as many as 500 jurors as opposed to the 12 used today.
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The Ancient Greek Olympics included events such as boxing, wrestling, discus, chariot racing, javelin, long jump, and many others. Wrestlers had to compete with no clothing in those days.
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It is estimated that approximately one-third of the Ancient Greek cities' populations were made up of slaves.
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Ancient Greeks loved the theatre, but only male actors were allowed. Actors wore masks which were meant to express emotion. The audiences in some theatres were as large as 15,000 people. Most of Ancient Greece's cities had large theatres.
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