Classical Greece: Great Ages of Man

Apart from its other claims to fame, the importance asigned by Classical Greece to individual acheivement assures it a place among the great ages of man. There were earlier great ages, but those periods were dominated for the most part by absolute rulers of monolithic state; the truly creative who certainly exisited in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia are almost entirely anonymous.Classical Greece was different. We know the names of 20,000 individuals in Athens alone, most of them recorded because of their participation in civic affairs.