Ancient Greece, established around 2500 B.C., fostered a culture of independent city-states known as poleis, with Athens and Sparta as prominent examples. Athens flourished under direct democracy, granting citizens political rights, while its cultural apex in the 5th century B.C. produced philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, alongside advancements in arts, medicine, and mathematics. The Peloponnesian War’s aftermath saw Athens decline, yielding to Macedonian dominance under Philip II and Alexander the Great, spreading Hellenistic culture across Asia and Africa. Ancient Rome, emerging from Etruscan influence in 753 B.C., evolved into a republic by 509 B.C., with a hierarchical social structure and expanding through military conquests, notably the Punic Wars against Carthage. Internal strife led to Julius Caesar’s rule and, ultimately, Augustus’s establishment of the Roman Empire in 27 B.C., ushering in the Pax Romana era of stability and cultural flourishing. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D., contrasting with the continued Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire until 1453, marking a transition to Ottoman rule and concluding a millennia-spanning legacy of Roman influence.