There was never one country called Greece. Instead, Greece was divided up into small city-states, such as Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Olympia.

Each city-state ruled itself. Each had its own government, laws and army. So, ancient Greeks living in Sparta considered themselves Spartan first.

Famously, the city-states didn’t get on very well and often fought each another. However, sometimes they joined together to fight against a bigger enemy, like the Persian Empire.

Only a very powerful ruler could control all Greece. One man did in the 300s BC. He was Alexander the Great, from Macedonia. Alexander led his army to conquer an empire that stretched as far as Afghanistan and India.

The Indo-Greek Kingdom actually lasted for at least 200 years, with distinct Greek populations remaining in South Asia for hundreds of years before being assimilated into the majority culture there. To the left, you can see a statue of a seated Buddha from the second century BCE which came from a site in what is now Pakistan. You can see the Greek artistic influence on this sculpture. 

Above is a statue of Alexander the Great in the modern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Can you see a similar artistic style to the Buddha? Why would Thessaloniki have dedicated a statue to an ancient leader? How have they depicted him?

Photo of Alexander statue from HistoryExtra.com

Buddha Statue from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SeatedBuddhaGandhara2ndCenturyOstasiatischeMuseum.jpg