How Did Ancient Greece Saved Western Civilization

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Without a doubt Ancient Greece influenced nearly every aspect of western civilization, from our architecture and literature to even our system of governing. Western cultural continually glorifies Ancient Athens, even when it probably shouldn’t. Some scholars, like Victor David Hansen, claim that the Greek victory against the Persians saved western civilizations. But the question remains, did it really save western civilization?
It’s important to keep in mind that all of this is pure speculation. Scholars can never truly know the answer to this question, ultimately the Persians didn’t win and nothing can alter that. It’s well known that, one action by one person can forever change the course of history. So even if the Persians did win who’s to say that they would have controlled Greece for an extended period of time. The Ancient Greeks were an aggressive and warlike people. As such it seems unlikely that they would allow an Eastern power to dominate them without resistance. Especially considering how strongly they believed that they were entitled to control the western world. Attitudes like that would have probably led to frequent
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So in the event that the Ancient Greeks did lose the war against Persia, Greek way of life wouldn’t have died completely. This doesn’t mean though that it would have flourished or benefitted from Persian rule. Before Persian command Ionia dominated intellectual pursuits in Greece, Miletus is considered the birthplace of philosophy, being the birthplace of people like Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximes. However, the name Ionia bares no meaning for most people, it’s not like Athens or Sparta which even children can name a fact or two about. Under a rather brief period of Persian rule this area declined drastically, and was never able to truly recover its previous

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