Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (c. AD 600).

The local names for Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The native Greek name of the country is Hellas or Ellada, and its official name is the Hellenic Republic. In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia (as used by the Romans) and literally means 'the land of the Greeks', which in turn originates from Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikós).

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