Ancient Greece Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Regions=== {{Main|Regions of ancient Greece}} [[File:Ancient Regions Mainland Greece.png|thumb|upright=1.25|right|Map showing the major regions of mainland ancient Greece and adjacent "barbarian" lands.]] The territory of Greece is mountainous, and as a result, ancient Greece consisted of many smaller regions, each with its own dialect, cultural peculiarities, and identity. Regionalism and regional conflicts were prominent features of ancient Greece. Cities tended to be located in valleys between mountains, or on coastal plains, and dominated a certain area around them. In the south lay the [[Peloponnese]], consisting of the regions of Laconia (southeast), Messenia (southwest), Elis (west), Achaia (north), Korinthia (northeast), Argolis (east), and Arcadia (center). These names survive to the present day as [[regional units of Greece|regional units of modern Greece]], though with somewhat different boundaries. Mainland Greece to the north, nowadays known as [[Central Greece]], consisted of [[Aetolia]] and [[Acarnania]] in the west, [[Locris]], [[Doris (Greece)|Doris]], and [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] in the center, while in the east lay [[Boeotia]], [[Attica]], and [[Megaris]]. Northeast lay [[Thessaly]], while [[Epirus]] lay to the northwest. Epirus stretched from the [[Ambracian Gulf]] in the south to the [[Ceraunian Mountains]] and the [[Aoos]] river in the north, and consisted of [[Chaonia]] (north), [[Molossia]] (center), and Thesprotia (south). In the northeast corner was [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]],<ref name=britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354266/Macedonia|title=Macedonia|year=2008|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|access-date=3 November 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081208092317/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354266/Macedonia| archive-date= 8 December 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> originally consisting [[Lower Macedonia]] and its regions, such as [[Elimeia]], [[Pieria (regional unit)|Pieria]], and [[Orestis (region)|Orestis]]. Around the time of [[Alexander I of Macedon]], the [[Argead dynasty|Argead kings of Macedon]] started to expand into [[Upper Macedonia]], lands inhabited by independent [[Ancient macedonians|Macedonian]] tribes like the [[Lynkestis|Lyncestae]], [[Orestae]] and the [[Elimiotis|Elimiotae]] and to the west, beyond the [[Axius river]], into [[Eordaia]], [[Bottiaea]], [[Mygdonia]], and [[Almopia]], regions settled by Thracian tribes.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=vx251bK988gC&pg=RA6-PA750 ''The Cambridge Ancient History: The fourth century B.C.''] edited by D.M. Lewis et al. I E S Edwards, Cambridge University Press, D.M. Lewis, John Boardman, [[Cyril John Gadd]], Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-23348-8}}, pp. 723–24.</ref> To the north of Macedonia lay various non-Greek peoples such as the [[Paeonians]] due north, the [[Thracians]] to the northeast, and the [[Illyrians]], with whom the [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonians]] were frequently in conflict, to the northwest. [[Chalcidice]] was settled early on by southern Greek colonists and was considered part of the Greek world, while from the late 2nd millennium BC substantial Greek settlement also occurred on the eastern shores of the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], in [[Anatolia]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page