The Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greece

Period: 600 BCE to 300 BCE

First Isthsmian Games held

582 BCE

The Isthmian Games were held in Corinth on a cycle with the Olympic Games, with the Isthmian Games held every second and every fourth year. The victors received a crown of woven celery or pine leaves, an ode or a statue, and 100 drachmae. The games never achieved the prominence of the Olympic Games.

Pindar ~518-438

518 BCE

Pindar of Thebes was one of ancient Greece's best non-Athenian poets. He traveled widely in the ancient Greek world, including to Sicily and southern Italy. His house was one of two buildings that Alexander the Great left standing when he sacked Thebes in 335 BC.

Sophocles ~496-406 BCE

496 BCE

Sophocles of Athens was one of the three great tragic playwrights of Athens. His works included Iphigenia in Aulis, and the trilogy of plays about Oedipus of Thebes, including Oedipus the King.

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

10,000 Athenians defeat a Persian invasion force of approximately 25,000 on a beach 26 miles from Athens. The herald Pheidippides ran the distance from the battlefield to the city, to inform the token defense force there that the Athenians were victorious, before dying. The Persian fleet arrived a few hours later, expecting to find an undefended city, but instead found the walls bristling with men, women and children armed to the teeth.

Euripides ~485-406 bce.

485 BCE

Euripides was the third of the great Greek playwrights involved in writing tragedies. His plays, including MEDEA about an event from the voyages of Jason and the Argonauts, featured some of the strongest female characters written before the modern era.

Battle of Thermopylae

480 BCE

A Spartan-led Greek army led by Leonidas tried to block the Persian advance at the pass of Thermopylae but was defeated despite brave resistance against overwhelming odds .At the battle of Thermopylae, 300 Spartans and 5000 other Greek hoplites held off an army of half a million Persians and allies for four days.

Battle of Plataea

479 BCE

The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I.

Socrates 469-399 BCE

469 BCE

Socrates was one of Greece's greatest philosophers. His thought processes and his method of questioning students are both recorded in the writings of Plato, his student and successor.

Aristophanes ~448-380 BCE

448 BCE

The author of numerous plays in the comic style, including "The Birds", "The Frogs", "the Clouds", and "The Knights". His most famous play, "Lysistrata", is based on a plot that the women of Athens and Sparta withhold sexual favors from their husbands and lovers in order to end the Peloponnesian War.

Peloponnesian War 431 BC - 405 BC

431 BCE

The war between the Greek city-states of Sparta and Athens was all-consuming. It pulled nearly every Greek city-state into the war as an ally first of one side and then the other. It even involved an Athenian expedition to Sicily, to try to outflank the Spartan alliance.

Plato 429-347 BCE

429 BCE

Plato was a student of Socrates, and the teacher of Aristotle. He wrote 35 dialogues and 13 letters that survive to the present, demonstrating his skill as a writer and philosopher. He was the founder of the Academy of Athens, the first college or university in the western world.

87th Olympiad

428 BCE

By 428 BC, the Olympic Games had expanded from one day of footraces to five days of competitions in wrestling, boxing, pankration (a no-holds barred kind of wrestling), footraces, javelin and discus throws, and other competitions.

Aristotle 384-322 BCE

384 BCE

Aristotle was the student of Plato, and the tutor of Alexander the Great. He is considered the father of the scientific method, and the third greatest philosopher of ancient Greece after Plato and Socrates.

Earthquake destroys Temple of Apollo at Delphi

373 BCE

This temple was destroyed in 373 B.C. by an earthquake and was rebuilt for the third time in 330 B.C.It was built to similar proportions and size as the Alcmeonidae version of the temple, with a peristasis of 6 and 15 columns along the short and long edges respectively.