Archie Hayes 
Ancient Greek is a language that was used by ancient Greeks in various periods of time. In the past, it had been called Mycenaean and Homeric because they were written before Plato‘s time; most people use Classical as an umbrella term for these two stages. It changed when Koine or Biblical Greek became popular during Alexander the Great’s conquests up until Medieval times where there are no more notable changes from their last period to ours now.
Greek is very different from Ancient Latin, Ancient Hebrew, and Ancient Arabic. Ancient Greek has borrowed a lot of vocabulary from Ancient Persian because they were on close terms (or in modern-day words, ally) with ancient Persians like Alexander the Great for example; it had also been passed on to Ancient Romans later down the line where Ancient Roman writers wrote about Ancient Greeks at one point in time. There are various dialects of Ancient Greek although there was only one standard language called Koine in antiquity which evolved into Medieval Greek over time.
Ancient Greek was written using an alphabet that is quite similar to those used by other European languages such as Etruscan, Old Italic, and Latin since the Greek language’s origins come from Asia Minor or Ancient Anatolia. Ancient Greek has also borrowed some vocabulary from Ancient Persian and Ancient Egyptian which are not used in Ancient Greek anymore; Ancient Egyptian for example no longer exists today but Latin does so Ancient Greeks are known to have spread their language around the Mediterranean during antiquity up until Medieval times when it evolved into what we call Koine, Medieval or even Modern/Common Greek of today. Ancient Greek scholars were indeed well-known all over Europe and they wrote some fascinating texts on many subjects like philosophy, music, cosmology (the study of the Universe) among others.
Ancient Greece was a civilization that flourished in southern Europe from the 9th century BC to 146 BC. It was really vast covering over half of Turkey’s territory back too. Ancient Greece had been described by some as the cradle of western civilization.
Greek culture and Roman civilization have influenced Ancient Greece in many aspects such as Ancient Greek literature, religion, architecture, art, and philosophy which made Ancient Greece a very civilized place to live back then. Ancient Greeks were pioneers in many things like political science and human rights. They invented Democracy and various forms of Government too; they also created theater with tragedy, comedy and satyr plays although later down the line they started creating new genres for example Ancient Greek theater was divided into three genres: Tragedy (Τραγωδια), Comedy (Κωμωδια) and Satyr Play (Σατυρικη). Ancient Greeks were the first that invented Mathematics too. Ancient Greek had been called Ancient Hellenic Civilization, Ancient Greece and Byzantine Empire at some point in time after Christianity spread to Ancient Greece.
Ancient Greeks are known for their achievements in the sciences; they have made many discoveries like creating a formal system of Logic which was very useful back when they needed to study Astronomy (Hellenistic astronomy), Physics, and Philosophy. Ancient Romans later understood Ancient Greeks’ reasons behind studying Physics although most Ancient Greeks studied philosophy as it was related to logic. Some ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle played an important role in shaping world civilization and culture by means of philosophical ideas that were taken up by others later on. Ancient Greeks were also known for their numerous inventions Ancient Greek engineers and architects invented various methods to defend Ancient Greece from Persian attacks. Ancient Greeks are praised as the first Europeans who used steam power in order to run Ancient Greek warships hence why they were called the “Fathers of Western Steam Power”. Ancient Greek was a lingua franca in the eastern Mediterranean by late antiquity, but it became extinct as an everyday spoken language around 600 AD after Latin spread throughout Europe although Medieval/Byzantine Greeks spoke common Ancient Greek until very early Modern times.
