How could you get from place to place in Ancient Greece?

Answer 1

Greece is a mountainous country and it is difficult to travel by land. Greece was also a poor country and very few people could afford horses and often the mountain passes were too rugged for horse anyway. So to travel by land meant walking by foot over high mountains in difficult weather conditions - either very hot conditions during the summer or very cold in the winter.

The best way to travel was therefore by boat or ship. It was much faster and safer than traveling by land. Most of the major Greek cities were port cities or had port cities close by (Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Syracuse etc).

This is why naval command of the seas around the Greek world became so important, controlling the seas meant you controlled trade and communications and made it very difficult for enemies to move around. For instance Athens was almost entirely dependent on sea trade to bring in food for its population. Without sea trade it could not survive as it was simply impossible to bring in the supplies over a land route.

Answer 2

By water transport in rivers, lakes and sea.

On foot by tracks on land, with the few who had riding animals using them.

By carts and wagons pulled by oxen, donkeys and horses.

Compared with today's mechanised transport it was slow and inefficient.

Water transport was by far the most efficient, and was the backbone of trade across the Greek world around the Mediterranean and Black Seas.