Greek Timeline

By Plussy
  • 776 BCE

    The First Olympics

    The Olympics are global sporting events that take place every two years and their origins lay in ancient Greece. In Greece the Olympics were held every four years while initially there was only one event being a foot race, later more and more events happened at the Olympics. In fact the Olympics were so influential that some historians used increments of four to measure time called Olympiads.
  • 762 BCE

    Homer's Iliad

    The Iliad written by a supposed Homer was a poem epic that takes place in the ten year long Trojan war, a war that happened but one we know little about. Homer's Iliad is one of the few pieces of evidence of the Trojan war existing and as well is one of the most influential pieces of literature to this very day with scholars even still debating it's themes and meanings.
  • 507 BCE

    The Birth of Democracy

    In 507 B.C.E Athenian leader Cleisthenes reformed the political structure into what we know now as democracy. While not perfect, women and slaves couldn't vote, it became the ground work of what many modern governments would build off of to be what they are today. The Athenians even had and early jury system that would pick jurors from random lots daily who would vote on the defendant being guilty or innocent
  • 490 BCE

    Battle of Marathon

    The Battle of Marathon is one of the most important events in Greek history. Located 26 miles (41.8 KM) from Athens the Athenian armies in a single afternoon fought off the Persian invasion at least temporarily preventing their advancement into Athens where the Persians would of taken over Athens and most likely the other city states would fall soon after. If the Persians were victorious humanity would of lost most if not all the advancements the Greeks made.
  • 323 BCE

    Alexander the Great's Death

    Alexander the Great is truly deserving of the title 'Great'. Alexander is responsible for the unification of Greece the fall of the Persians and a huge amount of Greek culture being spread throughout the land even causing other famous historic generals like Napoleon to attempt to mimic him.