Ancient Greece Timeline

Agamemnon

1524 BCE

Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War of Homer's Illiad.

Homer

850 BCE

Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature.

First Olympic Games

776 BCE

The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C., but it is generally accepted that the Olympics were at least 500 years old at that time.

Rise of the Tyrants

650 BCE

The tyrants were oppressive rulers in Greece. They were influential opportunists who remained in power with the help of mercenary soldiers. The tyrants often emerged from the aristocracy, and the force of public dislike of them varied from place to place.

Draco’s Code of Law

620 BCE

The draconian law created by Draco as written law for the Athenians.

Democracy

600 BCE

Athenian democracy developed around the sixth century BC in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica.

Darius I

550 BCE

Darius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE

Xerxes

519 BCE

Xerxes I, commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC.

Pericles

495 BCE

Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during its golden age, specifically the time between the Persian and the Peloponnesian Wars.

First Persian War

492 BCE

The first Persian invasion of Greece, during the Persian Wars, began in 492 BC, and ended with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes.

Second Persian War

480 BCE

The second Persian invasion of Greece occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece.

Battle of Thermopylae

480 BCE

The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece.

Socrates

470 BCE

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought.

Parthenon Completed

447 BCE

The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of their power

Peloponnesian Wars

431 BCE

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases.

Plato

428 BCE

Plato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy

Catapult

400 BCE

Catapults were invented by the ancient Greeks and in ancient India where they were used by the Magadhan Emperor Ajatshatru around the early to mid 5th century BC.

The Academy in Athens

387 BCE

The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum.

Aristotle

385 BCE

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Philip II

382 BCE

Philip II of Macedon was the king of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.

Alexander the Great

356 BCE

DescriptionAlexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty.

League of Corinth

338 BCE

The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League, was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II during the winter of 338 BC. After the Battle of Chaeronea and succeeded by Alexander the Great at 336 BC, to facilitate the use of military forces in the war of Greece against Persia.

Battle of Chaeronea

338 BCE

The Battle of Chaeronea was fought in 338 BC, near the city of Chaeronea in Boeotia, between the Macedonians led by Philip II of Macedon and an alliance of some of the Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes.