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The historically significant epigraphic record of Classical Greece differs in many ways from most of those discussed above. Much of it is paralleled by a mature and independent tradition of professional literary historiography. Except for the pre-Classical Helladic (Mycenaean) period of the 2nd millennium bce (see below), there was no archival tradition, although the bulk of “monumental” records sometimes approximates the same purpose of massive preservation. There was no all-important power centre and no dominant rulership before Hellenistic and Roman times: thus the geographical scattering of records was extreme, although naturally with some focuses of emphasis such as Athens. Above ...(100 of 12223 words)