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Period: 2500 BCE to 323 BCE
Ancient Greece
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1900 BCE
Crete
It was a large island with lots of little kingdoms ruled by different kings. No one knows what language they spoke, since they haven't been able to decifer the characters. It is the oldest written language in Europe. Knossos was the largest of the of the island's palace's. -
1400 BCE
Mycenae
The palaces of Mycenae and Knossos were abandonnes and turned to ruins over time. Trade and long-distance travel ceased. People started to live simple lives again afterwards, like agriculture. No one knows why yet, but it could be because of natural disaters and war. -
1100 BCE
Phoenicia
The people were known for their shipbuilding. They traded cedar wood for papyrus with the Egyptians, and then sold it with the Greeks. It is not really known how old it is, or where the people came from. They built cities throughout the Mediterranean. -
900 BCE
City states start to emerge.
The Greeks became more "civilized" and learned the art of writing from the Pheonicians. It was easier to trade, but it caused tension between the Persians and the Greeks. The reason for the city states are because of colonization. -
900 BCE
Greek Colonisation
The Anciant Greeks began to look for more land and resources, outside of Greece. They built colonies around the Mediterranean, which helped with trade, and then led to city states. -
776 BCE
Olympic games start
It started in the honor of Zeus. It was a number of athletic games, every four years. During that time, the city states would have a cease-fire, so that neighboring countries would be able to travel safely to the place were the games were held. -
753 BCE
Ancient Rome is founded
It was said to be founded by Romolus, twin of Remus. Romolus and Remus were supposedly sons of the god of war, Mars, and were brought up by a wolf. But that is a myth, and it seems very unlikely that they were brought up by a wolf. -
Period: 753 BCE to 476
Ancient Rome begins
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700 BCE
The Era of Antiquity begins.
It started when Athens and Sparta, Greek city-states, where very stable and had been there a while, were they weren't going to just disapear anytime soon. -
625 BCE
Money usage begins.
Drachma, or the silver drachma is one of the first used coins in the world, its name meaning to grasp in Anciant Greece. It was slightly different in every city state, seeing that they were handmade. It's value from the begining was a handful of arrows. -
600 BCE
Theater begins
It began in the Athens as tragedie plays for festivals. Then, they started Greek comedies, Those were two of the most popular genres across Greece, which inspired the two masks which are commonly used as a simbol for theater; one sad and one happy. -
550 BCE
Persian conquest
It started in Ionia, which was part of the Persian Empire. But the Greeks weren't happy with the taxes, and laws, so they started an uprise. The people in Athens sent ships to help, but the uprise failed. After that, there were many wars for many years. -
500 BCE
Rome becomes a republic.
A group of Roman noblemen overthrew the king and replaced him with two consuls, each with the same power of a king, but elected and only had one year of rule at a time. -
490 BCE
Marathon War
According to legend, at the end of the war, an Athenian messanger was sent from Marathon to Athens, about 40 km, to annouce that they had won the war. Then he collapsed and died of exhaustion. That is where we get the lenghth of marathons from. -
480 BCE
Battle against the Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was a naval war (a war fought over the sea) and was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, ruled by King Xerxes. In the end, the Greeks won and the Persians failed to conquer Peloponnese. -
480 BCE
Thermopyle War
It was lead by King Leonidas the I of Sparta, were the city-states allied against Persia and the war lasted three days. It was the second time Persia envaded Greece. -
431 BCE
Peloponnesian War
The war was fought between Athens and Sparta, the two most powerful city-states at the time. Athens threatened one of Sparta's allies, which led to Sparta raiding the Athens's allies' land. 'it went back and forth for some years before it ended 405 BC. -
400 BCE
The rise of Anciant Greece
Seeing as Greece was were it was, close to the sea, it was easy for trade to happen. During the 400 BC, trade became of great importance for the people. Archeologists can also see that there is a more developed painting on the pottery. -
382 BCE
King Philip II
King Philip II was the king of Macedon until his assassination in 336 BC, at a wedding. He was Alexander the Great's father, who immediatly gained control over the throne when his father died. -
356 BCE
Alexander the Great
He gained control of the throne at the age of twenty, and at the age of thirty had the largest empire of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to India. He was undefeatable in battle and was concidered the most successful military commanders throughout history. When he was younger, he was tutored by Aristotle.
He died in 323 BC. -
323 BCE
Hellenism
Alexander died, ending the time period. His empire was so big, it scattered and broke into many different parts. Greek imigrants founded about seventy diferent cities, most named Alexandria in the honor of Alexander the Great. -
270 BCE
Rome controls the Apennine Peninsula
The Gauls destroyed and burned Rome in 390.
In 264, Camillius, led the Roman army and gained control over the entire Italian Peninsula. -
241 BCE
First Punic War.
The First Punic War was the first of three wars between Carthrage and Rome. It began in 264 BC, and ended in 241 BC. At the end, the Romans were victorious, but not without loss. It was the longest naval war during the Antiquity, and lost over 100,000 men due to a storm on their way back to Rome. -
201 BCE
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War was the second punic war, dating from 218 BC to 201 BC. In 219, Hannibal, a Carthaginian general, attacked one of the many cities supporting Rome, provoking Rome into war.
The Romans remained victorious in the end. -
146 BCE
Third Punic War
The third and the last if the Punic Wars, it began in 149 BC and ended in 146 BC. The Second Punic War had ended with a treaty saying that the Carthagins were not allowed to start a war without the permission of Rome. One of Rome's allies, King Masinissa, used that to his advantage and repeatidly attacked the land. The Carthaginians sent an army to stop King Masinissa, resulting in another (and final) war. -
73 BCE
Sparticus
He was a gladiator/slave, who helped cause a massive slave uprise against the Roman Republic. -
46 BCE
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general whose actions ended with the fall of the Roman rupublic and the rise of the Roman Empire. He was once kidnapped and held for randsom by pirates, and when they asked for twenty silver talents (currency then), he insisted that they ask for 50. -
23 BCE
Roman Empire begins
An empire is a group of people are ruled by one person, usually known as an Emperor or Empress (if female). The Roman Empire began with the Roman Emperor Augustus. -
27
Emperor Augustus
The Emperor Augustus grately enlarged the Roman Empire throughout his reign, mainly thoughout Africa. His original name, was, in fact, Gaius Octavius, and not Augustus. He continuisly changed his name during his reign.
(I do find it interessting however that we are learning about someone who died 2001 years ago.) -
27
Pax Romana
Roughly two hundred years during the Roman history which was more or less peaceful and stable. It was a surprise given Rome's past bloody history.
Pax Romana began when Augustus defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. -
79
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
It's most famous eruption happened in the late of of 79 AD, which was one of the deadliest eruptions in Eurupian history. -
313
Christianity becomes a state religion
Christians used to be tortured and killed because of what they believe in. Not great. But then came along a certain Emperor (Constatine) and he became Christian himself. He protected the church and Christians, making practise of the religion legal. It also helped that everyone was welcome, so many people converted to it. -
337
Constatine the Great
During one of the wars, he looked up at the sky, saw a cross and heard voices telling him that under that sign he would conquer. So he went and became Christian as soon as possible. He was either seriously mentally ill (probably), blackmailed into doing so (unlikely) or just plain lying because he felt like causing a scandal. Before it had been illegal to be Christian, but he protected them. -
395
Ancient Rome splits
When the Emperor Theasus died, he gave half of Rome to his one of his sons, half to his other son. One got the East and the other got the West. Even though they would be two contries with different capitals. One of those capitals was Constantinaple, now known as Istanbul. -
476
Rome falls.
Many things led to the fall of Rome. One of them was the invasion of the Germanic tribes. One of them was that they relied on slaves far too much, and political instability. It doesn't help that Rome was split into two parts. The West fell first.