Archaic Period Timeline

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800 BCE - 500 BCE
Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
c. 800 BCE - 500 BCE
Archaic period of Greece.
c. 800 BCE - c. 700 BCE
Homer of Greece writes his Iliad and Odyssey.
733 BCE
Corinth founds the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.
c. 733 BCE
Traditional date when Corinth founds a colony on Corcyra.
683 BCE - 682 BCE
List of annual archons at Athens begins.
c. 650 BCE
Sparta crushes Messenian revolt.
650 BCE
Earliest large scale Greek marble sculpture.
650 BCE - 600 BCE
Age of law-givers in Greece.
594 BCE - 593 BCE
In Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
c. 580 BCE
The kouroi of Argos, thought to represent Cleobis & Biton, are sculpted.
546 BCE - 545 BCE
Persian conquest of Ionian Greek city-states.
539 BCE
Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
514 BCE
Fall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
499 BCE - 494 BCE
Ionian cities rebel against Persian rule.
c. 498 BCE
Ionians and Greek allies invade and burn Sardis (capital of Lydia).
c. 495 BCE
Birth of Pericles.
492 BCE
Darius I of Persia invades Greece.
11 Sep 490 BCE
A combined force of Greek hoplites defeat the Persians at Marathon.
487 BCE - 486 BCE
Archons begin to be appointed by lot in Athens.
c. 483 BCE
Themistocles persuades the Athenians to significantly expand their fleet, which saves them at Salamis and becomes their source of power.
480 BCE
Thebes sides with Persia during Xerxes invasion of Greece.
Aug 480 BCE
Battle of Thermopylae. 300 Spartans under King Leonidas and other Greek allies hold back the Persians led by Xerxes I for three days but are defeated.
Sep 480 BCE
Battle of Salamis where the Greek naval fleet led by Themistocles defeats the invading armada of Xerxes I of Persia.