Classical era

Classical antiquity, era, or period is a broad term for a long period of

cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly
with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (eighth-seventh
century B.C.E.), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of
the Western Roman Empire (fifth century C.E.), ending in the dissolution of
classical culture with the close of Late Antiquity (300—600 AD), or the
similar and better known periodization of history, the Early Middle Ages
(500-1100 C.E.). Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many
rather disparate cultures and periods. "Classical antiquity" typically refers to
an idealized vision of later people, of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe's words,
"the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome!"
The foundations of the modern world derive from the Classic Age as it was
reformulated during the Renaissance followed by the Enlightenment, which
subsequently emerged within what is usually described as liberal humanism.
For some, God's rightful place as the author of values and as the director of
history has been usurped as a result of confidence in human ingenuity
inspired by the great minds of the Classic Age. Positively, however, the
contemporary universal outlook, respect for the dignity of all people on
which democracy is based—inspired by Athenian democracy in the Classic
Age—thirst for knowledge and for ways of bettering the human lot can all be
traced back to the enduring influence of the Classical legacy.[1][2] The
relevance of the classical to the contemporary suggests that there is a great
deal of continuity in human experience and that values that served humanity
well in the past retain meaning in the present.

The Classical period itself lasted from approximately 1775 to 1825. The
name classical is applied to the period because in art and literature, there was
keen interest in, admiration for, and emulation of the classical artistic and
literary heritage of Greece and Rome.