The Greeks

Greece is a mountainous land of limited fertility, so settlements tended to cluster in the narrow valleys and on the various peninsulas that jut out into the Mediterranean. The relative isolation of the settlements encouraged them to form independent city-states. Like Sumeria, the individual Greek city-states were no match for a united conqueror, so by the time of A'h-mosè, mainland Greece was part of the Minoan Empire, centered on the island of Crete. The Minoan royal palace at Knossos was an impressive structure. Spread over six acres of land, it contained hundreds of rooms—and flush plumbing. Around 1500 B.C., the volcanic island of Thera exploded, causing a tsunami so devastating that the Minoans never recovered; this was probably the origin of the legend of Atlantis, retold by Plato a thousand years later.

The tsunami weakened the Minoans and the Greeks revolted. They invaded Crete, burned the palace and other centers of civilization, and lost the secret of flush plumbing for thousands of years. The Greeks established the Mycenaean Empire, named after one of their main cities. Around 1250 B.C., the Mycenaens besieged and destroyed Troy, a city on the coast of Asia Minor. But shortly after, the bronze-equipped conquerors of Troy were overcome by iron-wielding Dorians from the north. The Dorian dialect of Greek was difficult for the Mycenaeans to understand; they lampooned Dorian speech as “bar-bar” (much as we might describe someone's ramblings as “yadda-yadda”) and called them barbarians, a term that has since been applied to cultures that have no permanent cities.