With the disappearance of the Mycenaen civilization, Greece enters its dark age. For no less than four centuries writing is forgotten, not to be rediscovered until the 7th century BC with the adoption of the Phoenician alphabet of the 10th century BC. In the 5th century BC, Greek history is punctuated by the revolts of the Ionian cities against the yoke of the Persian Achaeminides; then by the Median wars with two Persian invasions in continental Greece; then by internal struggles (the Peloponnesian war). Travelers, sometimes imbued with a sense of Hellenic superiority, but also sometimes remarkably open and observing like Herodotus, open the eyes of the Greeks to Egypt and the Orient.
These “tourists” were not all peaceful; Xenophon and the successful of the Ten Thousand may have inspired the subsequent invasion of Alexander. These centuries also witness the expansion of the Greeks toward the west, with the founding of Marseilles (about 600 BC) and with the founding of Greek colonies in Sicily and the south of Italy toward the end of the 5th century BC. This expansion formed a cultural ensemble today called greater Greece.
