Time Line

2600 b. c.e. 2500 b. c.e. 2200 b. c.e. 2100 b. c.e. 2000 b. c.e. 1990 b. c.e.

1700 b. c.e.

1700 b. c.e.

1600 b. c.e. 1600 b. c.e. 1500 b. c.e.

1500 b. c.e.

1400 b. c.e. 1250 b. c.e.

1100 b. c.e.

1100-1000 b. c.e.

1000 b. c.e.

1000 b. c.e.

800 b. c.e.

776 b. c.e. Mid-700’s b. c.e. 750 b. c.e.

725 b. c.e.

The Minoan civilization begins to develop on Crete. The Helladic civilization begins on mainland Greece. The Indo-Europeans enter Greece.

The Middle Minoan civilization flourishes on Crete. The Middle Cycladic civilization begins in the Aegean. The Mycenaean civilization begins on mainland Greece.

An earthquake destroys palaces on Crete, and a period of major rebuilding begins.

Linear A documents, such as the Phaistos disk, are written on Crete.

The earliest Linear B documents are written.

The first alphabet is invented in Syria.

The Late Cycladic civilization begins in the Aegean, the Late Minoan on Crete.

A volcanic eruption on Thera causes the destruction of most of the southern coast of Crete.

Mycenaeans rule at the Palace of Knossos in Crete.

The city of Troy falls (although this event is traditionally dated by the Greeks to 1184 b. c.e.).

The Dorian invasion of Greece ends the Mycenaean period in Greece, the Cycladic civilization in the Aegean, and the Minoan civilization on Crete. The Greek Dark Ages begin.

Aegean Sea Peoples begin migrating to western Anatolia.

In Greece, an alphabet develops from Semitic sources. The Greeks settle in Ionia (western Anatolia). City-states begin to develop in Greece as the Archaic period begins.

The Olympic Games are established.

Coinage is invented by the Lydians.

The Iliad is composed by Homer.

The Odyssey is composed by Homer.

700 b. c.e.  The Age of Lyric Poets begins.

700 b. c.e.  Hesiod composes his Theogony and Works and Days.

700 b. c.e.  The Messenian Wars in the Greek Peloponnesus lead to

Spartan military society.

627 b. c.e.  The Age of Tyrants begins when Periander gains

Control of Corinth.

621 b. c.e.  Draco codifies the laws of Athens.

600 b. c.e.  Pre-Socratic philosophers begin philosophic inquiry in

Ionia.

594 b. c.e.  Solon becomes archon and introduces political and

Economic reforms in Athens.

546 b. c.e.  Cyrus the Great captures Sardis and ends the reign of

Croesus, king of Lydia.

530 b. c.e.  Pythagoras establishes a community in Croton, Italy,

Develops the Pythagorean theorem, and founds the philosophy of Pythagoreanism.

525 b. c.e.  Greek drama begins to develop in Athens.

515 b. c.e.  The Greek explorer Scylax of Caryanda sails to the

Indian Ocean.

510 b. c.e.  The Peisistratid tyrants are overthrown in Athens. The

Reforms of Cleisthenes lead to Athenian democracy.

500 b. c.e.  The Archaic period ends and the Classical Age begins

In Greece.

500 b. c.e.  Greek black-figure pottery is replaced by red-figure

Pottery.

499 b. c.e.  The Greco-Persian Wars begin with the Ionian Revolt.

490 b. c.e.  a coalition of Greek city-states defeat the Persian king

Darius in the Battle of Marathon.

480 b. c.e.  a coalition of Greek city-states defeat Persian king

Xerxes in the naval Battle of Salamis.

478 b. c.e.  The Golden Age of Athens begins with the founding of

The Delian League and the Athenian naval empire in the Aegean. During this period, the Athenians build the Parthenon. The Athenian Golden Age is marked by Athenian democracy; the great tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides; and the philosophy of Socrates.

431 b. c.e.  The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta

Begins.

431-404 b. c.e. The Greeks push back the Persians during the Peloponnesian Wars.

430 b. c.e.  The Greek sculptor Phidias completes the statue of

Zeus for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

404 b. c.e.  The Peloponnesian War ends with the destruction of

Athens’s Long Walls. Sparta assumes political dominance in Greece.

399 b. c.e.  Socrates is condemned to death in Athens.

370 b. c.e.  Hippocrates, founder of Western medicine, dies in

Thessaly.

353 b. c.e.  Artemisia II builds the Halicarnassus mausoleum for

Her dead brother and husband Mausolus, tyrant of Caria in Anatolia.

350 b. c.e.  Cynicism is founded in Greece by Diogenes of Sinope.

338 b. c.e.  Philip II of Macedonia defeats the Greek alliance at

Chaeronea and ends the independence of the Greek city-states.

333 b. c.e.  Alexander the Great defeats Darius III at the Battle of

Issus and ends both the Achaemenian Dynasty and the Persian Empire.

332 b. c.e.  Alexander the Great’s conquest in Egypt marks the

Beginning of Egypt’s Ptolemaic period. The city of Alexandria is founded at the mouth of the Nile.

330 b. c.e.  Alexander begins a campaign into Bactria.

326 b. c.e.  Alexander the Great wins the Battle of Hydaspes and

Extends his conquests to the Indus Valley.

323 b. c.e.  Alexander the Great dies in Babylon.

323 b. c.e.  The Greek Classical Age ends and the Hellenistic Age

Begins.

321 b. c.e.  Chandragupta Maurya pays one of Alexander’s

Successors, Seleucus I Nicator, five hundred war elephants for control of the Indus region, establishing the Mauryan Dynasty.

300 b. c.e.  The Greek Euclid compiles a treatise on geometry, the

Elements, in Alexandria, Egypt.

300 b. c.e.  The Greek navigator Pytheas of Massalia visits the

British Isles.

Thomas J. Sienkewicz