Ancient Greece

Joshua J. Mark

Definition

Greece is a country in southeastern Europe, known in Greek as Hellas or Ellada, and consisting of a mainland and an archipelago of islands. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of Western philosophy (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle), literature (Homer and Hesiod), mathematics (Pythagoras and Euclid), history (Herodotus), drama (Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes), the Olympic Games, and democracy.

More about: Ancient Greece

Timeline

c. 6000 BCE - 2900 BCE
Neolithic Age settlements in Greece, beginning of agriculture.
c. 3200 BCE - 1100 BCE
The Cycladic Civilization in Greece.
2300 BCE
Bronze is used in the Aegean.
2200 BCE - 1500 BCE
The Minoan Civilization flourishes on Crete, Greece. King Minos establishes the first navy in the region.
2000 BCE - 1450 BCE
Minoan civilization in Crete and the Aegean.
2000 BCE
Early Greeks settle the Peloponnese.
1900 BCE - 1100 BCE
Mycenaean civilization in Greece and the Aegean.
1650 BCE - 1550 BCE
Eruption of Thera and consequent tidal waves, destruction of Akrotiri and other Aegean centres.
1100 BCE
Dorian peoples occupy Greece.
c. 1100 BCE
Greeks implement use of individual tombs and graves.
c. 1000 BCE
The first distinctive Greek pottery is produced, the Proto-geometric style.
c. 900 BCE
Sparta is founded.
c. 900 BCE
The Geometric style of Greek pottery is first produced.
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.
c. 740 BCE - c. 433 BCE
Greek poleis or city-states establish colonies in Magna Graecia.
733 BCE
Corinth founds the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.
683 BCE - 682 BCE
List of annual archons at Athens begins.
c. 660 BCE
Pheidon is tyrant in Argos.
c. 657 BCE - 585 BCE
The Kypselidai are tyrants of Corinth.
650 BCE
Earliest large scale Greek marble sculpture.
c. 650 BCE
Sparta crushes Messenian revolt.
650 BCE - 600 BCE
Age of law-givers in Greece.
c. 625 BCE
Black-figure pottery created in Corinth.
c. 625 BCE - 600 BCE
The orientalizing style of Greek pottery becomes popular in Corinth.
594 BCE - 593 BCE
In Athens the archon Solon lays the foundations for democracy.
580 BCE - 376 BCE
Carthage and Greece fight for dominance in Sicily.
c. 560 BCE
Pisistratos becomes tyrant in Athens for the first time.
c. 550 BCE - c. 366 BCE
Peloponnesian League alliance between Sparta, Corinth, Elis and Tegea which establishes Spartan hegemony over the Peloponnese.
546 BCE - 545 BCE
Persian conquest of Ionian Greek city-states.
539 BCE
Etruscan & Carthaginian alliance expels the Greeks from Corsica.
535 BCE - 522 BCE
Polycrates rules as tyrant of Samos.
c. 530 BCE
Red-figure pottery style takes precedent over black-figure.
530 BCE
The Andokides Painter invents red-figure pottery.
c. 525 BCE - c. 456 BCE
Life of Greek tragedy poet Aeschylus.
522 BCE
Darius I (Darius the Great) succeeds to the throne of Persia after the death of Cambyses II.
514 BCE
Fall of the Peisistratid tyranny in Athens.
514 BCE
The tyrant of Athens Hipparchos is killed by Harmodios and Aristogeiton - the 'tyrannicides'.
c. 508 BCE
Reforms by Cleisthenes establishes democracy in Athens.
499 BCE - 493 BCE
Ionian cities rebel against Persian rule.
c. 498 BCE
Ionians and Greek allies invade and burn Sardis (capital of Lydia).
c. 497 BCE - c. 454 BCE
Alexander I reigns as king of Macedon.
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.
486 BCE
Xerxes succeeds to the throne of Persia after the death of Darius I.
c. 484 BCE - 407 BCE
Life of Greek tragedy poet Euripides.
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 - 323 BCE
The Classical Period in Greece.
Jul 480 BCE
Xerxes I makes extensive preparations to invade mainland Greece by building depots, canals and a boat bridge across the Hellespont.
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.
Aug 480 BCE
The indecisive battle of Artemision between the Greek and Persian fleets of Xerxes I. The Greeks withdraw to Salamis.
Sep 480 BCE
Battle of Salamis where the Greek naval fleet led by Themistocles defeats the invading armada of Xerxes I of Persia.
479 BCE
Xerxes' Persian forces are defeated by Greek forces at Plataea effectively ending Persia's imperial ambitions in Greece.
479 BCE - 432 CE
The period of Thucydides' Pentecontaetia in ancient Greece.
478 BCE - 404 BCE
The Delian League in Greece, led by Athens.
478 BCE
Sparta withdraws from alliance against Persia.
c. 469 BCE - 399 BCE
Life of Socrates.
c. 462 BCE - 458 BCE
Pericles introduces democratic institutions in Athens.
460 BCE - 445 BCE
First Peloponnesian War.
c. 460 BCE - c. 380 BCE
Life of Greek comic poet Aristophanes.
c. 460 BCE - c. 320 CE
Period of full and direct citizen democracy in Athens.
457 BCE
Hegemony of Athens over central Greece.
451 BCE
Thirty years peace between Argos and Sparta.
c. 451 BCE - c. 403 CE
Life of Athenian statesman and general Alcibiades.
c. 449 BCE
Ionian cities become independent from Persia under the Peace of Callias.
449 BCE - 448 BCE
Peace between Greece and Persia.
c. 449 BCE
Peace is agreed on by Athens and Persia, sometimes referred to as the Peace of Callias.
447 BCE - 432 BCE
The construction of the Parthenon in Athens by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates under the direction of Phidias.
446 BCE - 445 BCE
Thirty years peace between Athens and Peloponnesians.
431 BCE - 404 BCE
The 2nd Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League) which involved all of Greece.
c. 430 BCE - 415 BCE
The Histories of Herodotus is published. The work is divided into nine chapters, each dedicated to one of the Muses.
427 BCE - 347 BCE
Life of Plato.
421 BCE
Peace of Nicias, a truce between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues.
420 BCE
Democritos develops an atomic theory of matter.
412 BCE
Sparta allies with Persia.
404 BCE
End of the Peloponnesian war, Athens defeated By Sparta at Aigospotamoi, Rule of the Thirty Tyrants in Athens.
400 BCE
Pepper is known in Greece.
400 BCE - 330 BCE
The Late Classical Period in Greece.
399 BCE
Trial and death of the philosopher Socrates, who taught in the court of the Agora.
c. 398 BCE - c. 380 BCE
Plato travels in Egypt, Cyrene, Italy, Syracuse and Sicily.
395 BCE - 386 BCE
The Corinthian Wars between Sparta and an alliance of Athens, Corinth, Argos, Boeotia and Thebes.
384 BCE - 322 BCE
Life of Aristotle.
c. 384 BCE - 322 CE
Life of Athenian statesman Demosthenes.
380 BCE
Plato founds his Academy outside of Athens.
371 BCE - 362 BCE
Thebes is the dominant city-state in Greece.
371 BCE
Thebes, led by Epaminondas, defeats Sparta in the Battle of Leuctra.
6 Jul 371 BCE
The Battle of Leuctra is fought between the Boeotian League, led by the Thebes, and the forces of Sparta resulting in a Theban victory and shattering the illusion of Sparta's invincibility.
359 BCE - 336 BCE
Reign of Philip II of Macedon.
356 BCE
Third Social War in Greece.
21 Jul 356 BCE - 11 Jun 323 BCE
Life of Alexander the Great.
350 BCE
The Scythians have absorbed a lot of Greek culture; Scythian artefacts show Greek-style depictions.
347 BCE
Plato dies at his Academy.
343 BCE
King Philip II of Macedon summons Aristotle to tutor his young son Alexander (later 'The Great').
336 BCE - 323 BCE
Reign of Alexander the Great.
May 334 BCE
Alexander the Great invades the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
331 BCE
Egypt is conquered by Alexander the Great without resistance.
323 BCE - 31 BCE
Hellenistic civilization in Greece, the Mediterranean and Asia.
323 BCE - 31 BCE
The Hellenistic Age. Greek thought and culture infuses with indigenous people.
320 BCE
Last recorded examples of Attic Red-Figure Pottery.
310 BCE
Assassination of Roxanne and Alexander IV, wife and son of Alexander the Great.
c. 280 BCE
Founding of the Achaean League in the Peloponnese of Greece.
c. 270 BCE
Aristarchus of Samos proposes a heliocentric world view.
168 BCE
Rome defeats Macedon at Battle of Pydna.
146 BCE
Rome sacks Corinth and dissolves the Achaean league. Greece is ruled by Rome.
146 BCE
Roman influence over Greece begins to rise.
140 BCE
Venus of Milo is completed.
88 BCE - 63 BCE
Mithridates of Pontus fights three wars to free Greece from Rome.
86 BCE
The Roman general Sulla sacks Athens and the port of Piraeus.
31 BCE
Greece absorbed into Roman Empire.
42 CE - 62 CE
Paul the Apostle goes on missionary journeys across Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.
c. 50 CE - c. 60 CE
Establishment of various Christian communities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece, Egypt, and at least the city of Rome.
257 CE - 263 CE
The Goths raid Greece.
267 CE
The Goths sack Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Argos.
21 Jul 365 CE
The Crete Earthquake of 365 strikes near the island of Crete with an estimated magnitude of 8.5, destroying Cretan towns and cities and unleashing a tsunami that severely damaged settlements from Cyprus to Egypt and other regions from modern-day Libya to Spain with tremendous loss of life.
26 Sep 1371 CE
The Battle of Maritsa takes place by the Maritsa River, modern-day Greece, between the forces of the Serbian Empire and those of the Ottoman Empire, ending in a victory for the Ottomans and the end of Serbian power in the region.
3 May 1481 CE
The Great Rhodes Earthquake strikes the Island of Rhodes at 3:00 am, registering an estimated 7.1 magnitude on the Richter scale and triggering a tsunami which resulted in the deaths of 30,000 people and the destruction of the city of Rhodes.
2 Oct 1540 CE
The Ottoman Empire and Venice sign the peace treaty ending the Third Ottoman-Venetian War of 1537-1540, ceding Venice's territories in Greece to the Ottomans.
7 Oct 1571 CE
The naval Battle of Lepanto is fought between the European Holy League of Catholic states and the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras, Ionian Sea, ending in a victory for the Holy League and crushing defeat for the Ottomans. The battle takes its name from the Ottoman naval base the fleet sailed from.
8 Apr 1820 CE
The famous statue Venus de Milo is discovered on the island of Milos by the Greek farmer Yorgos Kentrotas. It was found in pieces, restored, and acquired by French authorities who placed it in the Louvre Museum, where it remains today.
13 Jan 1822 CE
The design of the Greek flag is approved by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
3 May 1837 CE
The University of Athens is founded in Athens, Greece, by King Otto of Greece and originally called the "Othonian University" in his honor. The original four faculties were Arts, Law, Medicine, and Theology.
12 Oct 1856 CE
The 1856 Heraklion Earthquake strikes the island of Crete with an estimated magnitude of 7.7 to 8.3 near the city of Heraklion, destroying it and damaging others. The earthquake also toppled buildings in Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes, Turkey, and other regions of the Middle East, killing over 600 people.
21 May 1864 CE
The Ionian Islands are reunited with Greece when Great Britain returns them through the Treaty of London. The islands then became part of the Kingdom of Greece, though Britain retained maritime access to the port of Corfu.
6 Apr 1896 CE
The first modern Olympic Games are held in Athens, Greece with the opening ceremony on 6 April, 1,500 years after they were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Sports included athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling. The first champion was American James Connolly for the triple jump.
17 May 1902 CE
The Antikythera Mechanism is discovered by Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais in a workroom of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The device was found in a shipwreck in 1900 and objects recovered but the mechanism was only a lump of corroded metal until Stais noticed it had a gear wheel.
18 Aug 1917 CE
The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 breaks out when a spark from a kitchen fire ignites a nearby pile of straw and the wind fans the flames toward neighboring houses. The fire burned throughout the 19th, destroying 32% of the city and leaving most of the citizens homeless and jobless.

Ancient Greece

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