cities: Greece built separately, though many large Greek cities had tenement blocks The front entrance of the home faced south, with a small entrance hall beyond which was an enclosed central courtyard Living rooms were at the back of the home, arranged around a portico or courtyard; separate servants’ quarters, kitchens, and reception halls were also situated around the ground floor Finer homes had bathrooms as well as second-story galleries over the porticoes, where separate women’s quarters were located City homes were furnished with beds, chests, tables, chairs, carpets, and tapestries and were provided with clay and metal drinking vessels and storage jars Walls were whitewashed and sometimes painted with geometric designs The homes of the wealthy displayed wall frescoes and mosaic floors NEW CITIES ABROAD During the fift h century b.c.e the polis of Athens reached the height of its power and prosperity About 40,000 citizens belonged to Athens, among a total population of about 300,000 Sparta held far fewer citizens but included a large number of serfs and slaves and a group of autonomous people who lived in the city’s vicinity; altogether the Sparatan city-state included about 250,000 people As the cities of Greece grew, overpopulation prompted overseas colonization Greek colonists built new cities on the coasts of the Black Sea, in Sicily, on the Adriatic Sea, in North Africa, and Egypt Greek town planning in Magna Graecia, in modern-day southern Italy, had a strong influence on republican Rome A Greek polis was first and foremost a body of citizens, and if it moved overseas to a colony site, the colonists still identified themselves as members of a city They were dependent on their homelands for goods and trade, for protection from coastal raids and pirates, and for the masons, carpenters, and other tradesmen who could provide essential services in the new territory The conquests of the Macedonian general Alexander the Great (r 336–323 b.c.e.) in the fourth century b.c.e spread Greek culture and cities into western Asia, from Egypt to the Levant to Afghanistan New Greek towns and camps were raised where Alexander’s armies had passed, and in defeated foreign capitals Greek temples, columns, statuary, and public buildings appeared as monuments to Greek civilization As his most enduring monument Alexander envisioned a trading city on the Mediterranean shores of Egypt, at a sheltered point between Lake Mareotis and the island of Pharos After Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 b.c.e and under King Ptolemy I (r 323–285 b.c.e.), Dinocrates of Rhodes laid out the city of Alexandria on the site of a small fishing village, Rhakotis The new town had two main avenues, 200 feet wide and lined with colonnades, running north-south and east-west The side streets crossed at right angles, in the Greek fashion The city had abundant fresh water drawn from Lake Mareotis, as well as street gutters that drained into subterranean canals that lay underneath every street 225 Alexandria prospered as the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt A flourishing center of Greek learning and culture, which endured long after the conquest of Greece proper by the Romans, the city boasted impressive monuments, including the tomb of Alexander, the lavish royal palaces of the Ptolemaic kings, a monumental temple known as the Serapeion (also spelled Serapeum), a museum, and the Library of Alexandria, THE DECLINE OF THE CITY-STATE Rivalries among the Greek cities worsened in the fifth century B.C.E as populations rose, trade routes grew more crowded, and the Persian Empire threatened invasion and conquest The Peloponnesian War set Athens and her allies against a federation led by Sparta, and it forced all other Greek cities to choose sides The war brought widespread death and destruction and ended the dominance of Athens over the Greek world It prepared the Greeks for nationhood—and for the end of the independent city-state In the semibarbarous northern realm of Macedon, the ambitious King Philip II (r 359–336 B.C.E.) aspired to lord it over a weakened Athens and the entire Greek world He seized the gold and silver mines of northern Greece and raised allies to work for his own interests in all the major cities to the south Thebes allied with Athens to resist the Macedonians, but the Greeks were soundly defeated at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C.E Leading one wing of the Macedonian troops in this battle was Philip’s 17-year-old son, the future Alexander the Great Chaeronea marked the end of Greek resistance to Philip of Macedon Soon after the battle, he organized the League of Corinth to fight the Persians, who remained a constant threat Each member of the league was allowed to keep its own constitution, but a national assembly began meeting at Corinth, and Philip raised a new Greek army, under his personal leadership, by levying troops from all the corners of the Hellenic world Although Philip was assassinated in 336 B.C.E., his goal of uniting all the Greeks under a Macedonian dynasty was realized by Alexander, a brilliant military tactician Philip’s young heir traveled to Corinth, where representatives from all the major Greek cities hailed him as their nominal king He took the reins of the national army and, when the city of Thebes rebelled against him, besieged the city and burned it to the ground The traditional, independent city-state of Greece, an institution dating back a millennium, grew obsolete under Alexander’s reign and the subsequent conquest of Greece by the Romans