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Period: 3000 BCE to 1500 BCE
Minoan Civilization on the island of Crete
This is the "mother" civilization that influenced the Greeks on the mainland that came after. The Minoans are the ones with the Minotaur myth. -
Period: 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE
Mycenean civilization
These guys were the early Greeks on the mainland. They were fishermen, traders, and warriors. They were the first to speak Greek. -
1200 BCE
Trojan War
This was was written about by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Click Here to Learn About the Trojan War as it was written in the Epic Poem called The Iliad. -
Period: 1100 BCE to 800 BCE
Dark Ages of Greece
During this time, there was little reading or writing going on in Greece, therefore, it became known as the Dark Ages of Greece because historians can't see very well what went on during that time. -
Period: 776 BCE to 146 BCE
Iron Age of Greece
This period itself can be further divided up into three main periods: Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic. -
750 BCE
Homer the poet writes the Odyssey.
This is the half-true and half-myth book of Odysseus' journey back from the Trojan War, which took place about four hundred of years before Homer was alive. -
570 BCE
Pythagoras is born
This guy was great at math. He created the theory that bears his name: The Pythagorean Theorem. It has to do with triangles that have a right angle (90 degrees). -
508 BCE
Democracy starts in Greece
Democracy starts in Athens because of this guy called Cleisthenes. He makes a constitution and is often called the "Father of Athenian Democracy". -
499 BCE
Persian War starts
The Persian War was a war fought between the city states of ancient Greece and the Persian Empire. The Greeks won against crazy odds (the Persians had way more soldiers). -
468 BCE
Sophecles makes plays
Theater starts to be a thing in ancient Greece when Sophocles starts to write really good plays. The Greeks soon would build big outdoor amphitheaters to watch their theatrical productions. -
431 BCE
Peloponnesian War
Athens VS. Sparta!
Sparta won. Greece was weakened a lot by this war, and, because of this, it was easily taken over a little while later by Alexander the Great and Alexander the Great's father. -
399 BCE
Socrates sentenced to death!
Socrates was a great thinker and teacher of ancient Greece. He taught Plato, who taught Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great. Socrates was sentenced to death because he was charged with corrupting the youth. What he was really trying to do was to get people to think for themselves and discover new ways to do things. -
387 BCE
Plato's Academy
Plato starts a university called 'The Academy' just outside the city walls of Athens. Many consider this the first university in the world, although others would soon appear in parts of Asia. -
367 BCE
Aristotle learns from Plato
When Aristotle was 17 years old, he traveled to Athens to learn from Plato at The Academy. He studied there for about 20 years, becoming a teacher himself towards the end of his time at the school. -
356 BCE
Alexander the Great is born.
He was from Macedonia, which is just north of Greece. Alexander the Great's father, King Philip II, sent him to learn from the best teacher, which was Aristotle. King Philip took over and unified Greece. Alexander the Great, when his father died, was a great leader, warrior, and general. He took over Persia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia in a very short amount of time. -
146 BCE
Rome conquers Greece
Rome takes over Greece and copies a lot of its culture. The gods and goddesses are basically the same, but with different names (well, most have different names).