Ancient Greece

hoplites

After Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, Christian mobs, often led by the bishops, set about burning all literature that did not support the objectives of the Church. Many ancient texts were lost forever, as were nearly all the Gnostic Christian texts, at least until the Nag Hammadi disciveries of the twentieth century.

In large parts of the Middle East, the Nestorians and Jacobites, who had been excluded from the Orthodox Church for alleged heresy, were outside the reach of Rome and were therefore free to follow their somewhat more tolerant teachings. By the time of the Muslim conquest, many of the most important ancient texts had survived under the protection of the Eastern Churches. The Nestorians and Jacobites continued to flourish for some centuries under Islamic rule, and provided many of the scholars of the early Islamic empire, teaching Muslim scholars the fundamentals of Greek scholarship. Whereas the Catholic-Orthodox Church had feared the damaging effect of non-Christian literature on innocent minds, the Muslims had no such concerns and made no attempt to destroy the ancient texts.

He established a model democracy in which every citizen could participate. While no country has adopted such a form of government in the modern world, it has inspired many modern republics, including the United States.

Many styles and fashions today are Greek-inspired especially clothing items such as evening gowns. There are many hairstyles which have been worn since Grecian times. Gladiator sandals have been in style lately, many designs which were very similar to ones the ancient Greeks would have worn.

The concept of "zero" is a very difficult one for many people to understand, even today. It is what remains when you have "one" and subtract "one" - the result is nothingness, emptiness, a void.

Ancient people generally did not see any need to represent "nothingness" as a numeric value and they got along just fine without it. It is only when better technology and the concept of advanced mathematics came along that "zero" needed to be written down - if you think about it, this is a paradox since writing "zero" means you are writing down absolutely nothing at all.

In the late ancient period, Babylonian mathematicians came up with a sign for zero, simply because they need a "placeholder" to denote nothingness in their sexigessimal system; the Mayas in Central America did much the same in the 4th century AD.

Our concept of numeric zero seems to start in India, passing into Europe via the Arab mathematicians.

One result of the independent spirit of early Greeks was the establishment of city-states, or poleis, such as Athens and Sparta. These city-states fostered a sense of local identity and governance, leading to diverse political systems and cultural developments. The emphasis on individualism and civic participation also laid the groundwork for democratic principles, particularly in Athens, influencing future political thought and systems in the Western world.

they borrow large amounts of money from their cousins and then on-lend that to Angela Merkel at a profit.

AESOP

The same as poor people - typically bread, olive oil, some fish sauce and vegetable/fruit.

in your back yard

There is no single answer here. There are many Greek philosophers and many philosophical systems they believed in. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Heracletus are just some of them and one should know that each had his own view of the world. You should refer to specific questions on each one of them in WikiAnswers.

It was either Zues or Athena

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Zeus and Athena were gods, not leaders of the Ancient Greek people. Some of the most famous rulers were:

Pericles

Solon

Cleisthenes

Themistocles

Cimon

Lysander

Lycurgus

THere are many many more, but these are some of the most well known.

Perhaps the greatest greek thinker was Aristotle plato's student. Aristotle believed that moderation was based on reason, or clear and ordered thinking.

the ancient greek market was called an agora.

Ancient Greece was comprised of over 2,000 independent city-states stretching around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, with perpetual wars amongst each other. There were hundreds of wars. The eastern cities were conquered by Macedonia, then Rome took over the Greek world, and in the later history of Europe, the Greeks were absorbed by many incoming Eurasian invaders.Greece did not re-emerge until the early 19th Century.

Nomadic Greek tribes each selected a piece of land to settle. The rivers, lakes and mountains separated them, so they developed independent city-states, and had no wish to surrender independence.

The government, or certain members of it, would decide legal issues concerning the state and also at times, of individuals. Legal issues concerning the state would be in the nature of war and taxes and of individuals, it would give lawbreakers a trial.

Greece enjoys ample deposits of fine clay, in particular large quantities of good quality secondary clay. The clay beds around Athens are distinctive for their chemical composition, mainly with respect to their iron oxide (Fe2O3) and calcium oxide (CaO) contents, which are responsible for the reddish-orange colour of the fired clay. This marks it out from the clays of other regions such as Corinth where the pottery has a lighter, creamy-white appearance. Indeed spectroscopy and other methods has revealed unexpected connections amongst vases distributed around the Mediterranean basin, as in the case of the hydriai from Hadra near Alexandria. Previously thought to be Egyptian in origin analysis of their chemical composition has shown them to have been imported from a workshop in Rhodes[16]. Primary clays were rarer and used sparingly mostly as an accessory colour in decoration, for example on white ground vases where kaolinite was applied in a thin uniform layer while the pot was on the wheel. All clay was purified through levigation in order to remove such impurities as quartz and limestone in order to increase the malleability of the clay in the potter's hands. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_of_ancient_Greece

There were ten generals (strategos) - one from each tribe commanding their tribal contingent. The nominal war leader was the Polemarch Callimachus. The story is that, as they waited for an opportunity to attack, each of the ten took it in turns day about to be commander. On the tenth day when the battle was actually joined, it was the turn of Miltiades.

Sparta because they decided to expand around that time and went to war and eventually took over every city-state they crossed

The only thing that might have helped them be more cooperative was the impossible dream that they could forego their habitual way of settling their disputes without war. They went on fighting until Macedonia brought them to heel. This was only a temporary respite; they continued on fighting each other for centuries more.

The development of the first mathematical system of perspective (apex)

Philosophy was central to the Greeks in that it shaped their lives, culture and politics. Much of democracy was based on philosophy.