Ancient Greece Timeline

Homer

850 BCE

DescriptionHomer 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 ancient Olympics, held every four years, occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus.

Draco’s code of law

620 BCE

The Draconian law was created by king Draco for the Armenian people.

Rise of the Tyrants

546 BCE

Tyrant, Greek tyrannos, a cruel and oppressive ruler or, in ancient Greece, a ruler who seized power unconstitutionally or inherited such power. ... Thus, the opportunity arose for ambitious men to seize power in the name of the oppressed.

Democracy

508 BCE

DescriptionDemocracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation.

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

It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination of the first attempt by Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Greece.

Darius I

487 BCE

Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire

Battle of Thermopylae

480 BCE

DescriptionThe 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.

Second Persian War

479 BCE

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

Xerxes

465 BCE

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

Parthenon completed

432 BCE

DescriptionThe Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron.

Pericles

429 BCE

DescriptionPericles 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

Agamemnon

411 BCE

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

Peloponnesian Wars

404 BCE

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.

Catapult

400 BCE

A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines.

Socrates

399 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.

The Academy in Athens

387 BCE

DescriptionThe Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC

Plato

348 BCE

DescriptionPlato was an Athenian philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.

Battle of Chaeronea

338 BCE

DescriptionThe 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.

League of Corinth

337 BCE

was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II during the winter of 338 BC/337 BC after the Battle of Chaeronea

Philip II

336 BCE

Philip II of Macedon was the king of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC.

Alexander the Great

323 BCE

Alexander the Great was an ancient Macedonian ruler and one of history's greatest military minds who, as King of Macedonia and Persia, established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen.

Aristotle

323 BCE

DescriptionAristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato