During the Classical era, the Mediterranean basin was dominated by two enormously influential cultures: the Greeks and the Romans Although the Greeks did not build a centralized state beyond the short empire of Alexander of Macedon, they did serve to link the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions through colonization, commerce, and cultural interaction. In sharp contrast to the Greeks, the Romans established a sprawling, cosmopolitan empire that encompassed much of Europe and northern Africa. A tight administrative structure and organized trade network promoted the movement of people, goods, and ideas throughout the empire. The Greeks and Romans powerfully influenced later Mediterranean, European, and southwest Asian cultures. These influences include, but are not limited to

• The earliest of form of democracy, the best realization of which was found in Athens under the leadership of the statesman Pericles.
• Unique contributions to literature in the forms of mythology, poetry, drama, and essays.
• The contributions of the rational philosophical thought of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and later the Epicureans, the Skeptics, and the Stoics.
• Elaborate transportation and communications networks with sophisticated roads, sea lanes linking port cities, and an imperial postal system.
• Widespread dissemination of philosophical beliefs and values, like Stoicism, and religions of salvation, like Christianity.