"Classical Greece", "Golden Age Greece", "Periclean Athens"... these are ways to describe the ascendance of Greek civilization during the 5th century BCE.
What conditions enabled Athens to rise above other city-states and become a center of cultural achievement? (think art, architecture, philosophy, politics, theater, math, engineering, etc.)
How was war a defining factor for Greek civilization, shaping it immeasurably by uniting and fracturing Greek city-states and cultivating a fierce sense of competition, arete, and ultimately, hubris?
