Classical Antiquity is a period in the history of the Near East and Mediterranean, extending roughly from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is conventionally taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (8thâÂÂ7th century BC), and continues through the emergence of Christianity and the decline of the Roman Empire in the 5th to 6th centuries, the period during which Late Antiquity blends into the "Dark Ages" or Early Middle Ages.
The geographic scope of Classical Antiquity may be taken to extend to Central Asia and North India due to the far-reaching influence of Greek culture during the Hellenistic period (late 4th to 2nd centuries BC), but the historiographies of other world regions have their own notion of "classicity" which do not fall within the scope of this list.