HISTORY OF GREECE 3000-0 BC
3000-1000 BC
The earliest known prehistoric civilizations occupy the Aegean world. This
period marks the rise and fall of the Minoan
and Mycenaean civilization.
2200 BC
Indo-European invaders, speaking the earliest forms of Greek, enter the
mainland of Greece, and the Mycenaean civilization
from 1600-1200 BC.
2000-1500 BC
Minoan civilization, named after the Cretan ruler
Minos, reaches its height with its central power in Knossos on the island of
Crete. This culture is apparently more female-oriented and peaceful than others
at the time.
1400 BC
Mycenaean Civilization replaces the Minoan civilization after the destruction of Knossos. Bronze weapons, war-scenes on art,
Cyclopean defense walls, and the fact that male warriors were buried with their
weapons provide evidence for the claim that the Mycenaeans were militaristic.
The horse-drawn chariot emerges around this time. The Mycenaeans dominate the
Aegean world for about 200 years.
1200 BC
Though this is disputed, some scholars believe that the Mycenaean wage war
with the Trojans of western Asia Minor and are successful.
1100 BC THE DORIANS
"Barbaric" Dorian invaders who are using iron weapons. From this
point, Greek culture enters the so-called Dark Ages, characterized by the
disappearance of writing and a decline in architecture and other aspects of
material culture.
1100 BC - 800 BC THE DARK AGES
The period lasts until about 800 BC.
WRITTEN HISTORY
800 BC
The two Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey,
are often used by scholars as evidence of the traditions and institutions in
place during this time. However, such use is strongly contested.
Increase in trade and the establishment of governmental defense
fortifications allows for the emergence of Greek city-states from tribal
communities. These grow up around marketplaces and include Athens, Thebes and Megara on the Greek mainland. The Greek city-states are
considered the most famous units of Greek political life to develop in this
society.
800-500 BC
This period, often referred to as the Archaic period, marks the
developments of literature and the arts, politics, philosophy and science. The
Peloponnesian city of Corinth, Sparta
and cities along the coast of the Aegean Sea flourish. For the most part, the
Greek city-states are similar in their political evolution, with the exception
of Sparta's elite dictatorship. Most begin their political histories as
monarchies, evolve to oligarchies, are overthrown during the age of the tyrants
650-500 BC and eventually establish democracies in the sixth and fifth
centuries. Of the Greek city-states, Athens
and Sparta were the two most
important.
776 BC
The Ancient Olympic Games, originally referred to as simply the Olympic Games (Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; Olympiakoi Agones) were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-stateof Ancient Greece. Earliest records indicate that they began in 776 BC in Olympia, Peloponnese, Greece. There are various legends regarding the origin of the Games. They were celebrated until 393 AD.
700 BC
Hesiod, Greece's second poet (after Homer)
and the first poet to name himself, is composing his poetry. His most important
works are The Theogony and Works and Days.
640 BC
Sparta's form of government, which is adapted from the Dorians, is heavily
influenced by militarianism. The Messenian wars initiate Sparta's fear of
change. They remain an isolated people, primarily by banning trade and
discouraging travel outside of Spartan territory. Alcaeus, Greek lyric poet, is
born in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. His lyrics expound on contemporary
politics, love, hymns to Apollo and Hermes, and include some drinking songs.
612 BC
Sappho, Greek lyric poet of Lesbos, is born. The most famous female poet of the
ancient world, Sappho is inscribed in the Palatine Anthology among the
Muses, rather than among the great lyric poets, in the second century BCE. Her
lyric poetry includes the exploration of female sexuality, female values in a
male dominated society, and love.
594 BC
Solon, the great elegiac poet, is appointed chief magistrate of Athens. His reforms include both political and economical adjustments which lead
to dissatisfaction in the upper and lower classes.
585 BC
In Miletus, the founding city of philosophy, Thales predicts a total
eclipse of the sun. The founder of the Melesian school, Thales, teaches that
all things are composed of moisture; he is the first to put forth a rational
explanation of the cosmos. By the end of the sixth century, philosophers begin
to question the metaphysical nature of the cosmos with inquiries into the
nature of being, the meaning of truth, and the relationship between the divine
and the physical world.
546 BC
The first of the Athenian tyrants, Peisistratus, replaces Solon as ruler.
530 BC
Pythagoras and his followers found the city of Croton and combine philosophy and
literature with political activity as the foundation of their community.
Pythagoras, mathematician and philosopher, is credited with the Pythagorean
theorem and the Pythagorean table of opposites (the "dualism" that
underlies Greek thought).
525 BC
Greek drama grows out of the Dionysian festivals. The plays of Aeschylus are
considered to be the beginning of this long history of tragic drama. His
stories are drawn from conflicts between the individual and the cosmos.
518 BC
Pindar, considered by some to be the greatest Greek lyric poet, is born in
Cynoscephalae, Boeotia. Pindar's odes celebrate games held at the religious
festivals of Greece. Athletic victory serves as the ground for his poetic fancy
and his religious, moral, and aesthetic insights. He dies in 438 BC
515 BC
Parmenides of Elea is born. He is the founder of
the Eleatic school in the Phocaean colony in southern Italy. He is the first to
focus attention on the central problem of Greek metaphysics: the nature of
being. For Parmenides, the laws governing the universe are stable. Change is
merely an illusion.
510 BC
Hippias, the son of Peisistratus, succeeds his father and is overthrown by
a group of nobles with the help of Sparta.
508 BC
Cleisthenes, the father of Athenian democracy, rules Athens. His reforms grant full rights to all free men of Athens.
500 BC
The height of Greek sculpture begins with the work of Phidias. His
masterpieces include the statue of Athena in the Parthenon, the
Parthenon reliefs and the statue of Zeus in the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The
second most important sculptor, Myron, is renowned for his statue of the discus
thrower.
490 - 479 BC PERSIAN WARS
The Greeks initiate war with Persia when Persia, at this time the strongest
power in western Asia, establishes rule over Greek-speaking cities in Asia
Minor. The Persian Wars are commonly
regarded as among the most significant in all of history. Darius the Great is
defeated at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The Greeks emerge victorious and put an end to the possibility of
Persian despotism.
Click to enlarge
| ΝΕΝΙΚΗΚΑΜΕΝ
"We won" the battle of Marathon"
Painting of Pheidippides as he gave word of the Greek victory over Persia at the Battle of MArathon to the people of Athens.
Luc-Olivier Merson, 1869 |
486 BC
A contempoary of Darius the Persian, Heraclitus of Ephesus lives somewhere
around this time. For Heraclitus, reality is flux which originated out of fire
(as opposed to Parmenides' "stable" reality Plato credits Heraclitus for saying, "One cannot step into the
same river twice." Heraclitus was also known as "the obscure."
485 BC
Accompanying the high point of democracy in Athens is a Greek intellectual
revolution, with its beginnings in Sophism. The Sophists situate ethics and
politics within philosophical discourse which, before, was limited to physics
and metaphysics alone. The leading Sophist, Protagoras, states his famous
doctrine: "Man is the measure of all things." For him, all truth,
goodness, beauty, etc. are relative to man's necessities and inquiries.
Emerging in opposition to the Sophists are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, each of whom offers alternatives to the Sophists' relativism.
484 BC
The father of history, Herodotus, is born. He is author of a nine-book
History of the Persian Wars and a book dedicated to his travels through Egypt.
He dies in 420 BC.
478 BC
Athens joins with other Greek city-states in the
formation of the Delian League . The League
continues even after the end of the Persian Wars and transforms into a naval
empire with Athens as its leader.
469 BC
Sophocles is born. He is the second Greek dramatist,
following Aeschylus, and is considered by some to
be the greatest of the Greek dramatists. His works include Oedipus Rex
and Antigone. He dies in 406 BC. This
year also marks the birth of Socrates, a philosopher of ethics who leaves no
written philosophy. He is the major critic of popular belief in Athens and is
the protagonist of Plato's dialogues. He is condemned to death in 399 BC on the
charges of corrupting the youth and introducing new gods into Greek thought.
461-429 BC
During this "Age of Pericles," Athenian democracy reaches
perfection, and the court systems are completed. A jury system is put in place
with the jury serving as absolute authority in judicial matters.
448 BC
Aristopahnes, considered by some to be the
greatest Greek comedy writer, is born. He dies in 380 BC. Greek comedy, like
Greek tragedy, originates out of the Dionysian festivals.
431-404 BC
During the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, the political supremacy of Athens is ended. Athenian trade is destroyed.
Athenian democracy is overthrown, and Athens is forced to surrender to Sparta
as a subject state. Sparta assumes dominance over the Greek world and replaces
many Greek democracies with oligarchies. The two major causes of the war are
Athens' growth in imperialism and the economic and cultural differences between
Athens and Sparta. Between 404 and 338, Sparta is not able to persist in the
rule of Greece. Power over Greece shifts from Sparta to Thebes and then to
numerous other city-states, none able to maintain rule over such a large empire.
427 BC
Plato, Socrates' most distinguished student, is born. He is a prolific writer and
is considered by some to be the most important of all philosophers. Among his
most noted works are The Apology, The Symposium, The Phaedo, The Phaedrusand
the Republic. His written works are in dialogue form. He dies in 347 BC.
406 BC
Euripides dies. Born in 480 BC, he is the last of the
tragic dramatists. His contribution to the history of Greek tragedy is his
creation of a drama that deals with situations analogous to human life.
384 BC
Plato's most distinguished student, Aristotle, is born. He enters Plato’s Academy at the age of seventeen. After spending
several years as tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle returns to Athens and
founds the Lyceum. Among his writings are treatises on logic, metaphysics,
ethics, politics, rhetoric and several on natural sciences. He dies in 322 BC.
350 BC
Hellenistic Age witnesses the new philosophy
of the Cynics. Their leader, Diogenes, puts forth the first argument against
conventional life. The Cynics believe that people should live naturally and
strive for self-sufficiency.
343 BC
The greatest dramatist of Helenistic Greece, Menander, follows the comedic genre put forth by Aristophanes (the subject
of which is romantic love).
338 BC
Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father, conquers Greece and is
succeeded by his son two years later. At age twenty-two, Alexander begins his
campaign to acquire new territory in Asia. Within four years, Alexander
conquers the entire Persian Empire (including Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia, Syria
and Mesopotamia). Alexander continues his campaign farther east and eventually
returns to Persia in 323 BC, where he dies of fever in Babylon. Before his
death, Alexander was the ruler of the largest empire the world had seen. Hellenistic
Greece, a combination of Greek and western Asian cultures, lasts from
Alexander's time until the beginning of the Christian era.
323 BC
Alexander leaves no successors, and the highest generals engage in many
wars which result in the decisive battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. The empire is
divided into four major states under the separate rules of Seleucus,
Lysimachus, Cassander and Ptolemy. Greek cities revolt against Macedonian rule
but to no avail. The next four hundred years witness the growth of large cities
and Hellenistic international trade.
300 BC
Epicureanism and Stoicism both originate in Athens. Both Epicurus (342-270) and Zeno, the Stoic (not to be confused with Zeno
of Elea), believe in an individualistic and materialistic philosophy. Neither
believe in spiritual substances. The soul is thought to be material. The
Epicureans believe that pleasure is the highest good, and only by abandoning
the fear of the supernatural can one achieve tranquillity of mind. The Stoics
believe that tranquillity of mind is only achieved by surrendering the self to
the order of the cosmos.
310 BC
Hellenistic astronomy is founded by Aristarchus of Samos. His major
contribution to Hellenistic thought is his theory that the earth and all other
planets revolve around the sun, contrary to Aristotle.
200 BC
Under the influence of Carneades, skepticism arises with doctrines closely
tied to Sophism. They teach that because all knowledge is achieved through
sense perception, nothing can be known for sure.
146-30 BC
Between these years, nearly all Hellenistic territory becomes subject to
Roman rule.
To be updated