Ancient Greece

Agamemnon

1524 BCE

Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War of Homer's Illiad. He is presented as a great warrior but selfish ruler, famously upsetting his invincible champion Achilles and so prolonging the war and suffering of his men.

Homer

850 BCE

Homer is the author of the two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These poems are two central works of ancient Greek literature.

First Olympic Games

776 BCE

The first recorded Olympic Games were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C. The ancient Olympics, held every four years, occurred during a religious festival honoring the Greek god Zeus.

Rise of the Tyrants

700 BCE

Tyrant, Greek tyrannos, a cruel and oppressive ruler or, in ancient Greece, a ruler who seized power unconstitutionally or inherited such power. In the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, monarchy was the usual form of government in the Greek states. The aristocratic regimes that replaced monarchy were by the 7th century BCE themselves unpopular. Thus, the opportunity arose for ambitious men to seize power in the name of the oppressed.

Draco's Code of Law

620 BCE

Draco's code was a written law code created in response to the unjust interpretation of oral law by Athenian aristocrats. This use of law was an early idea of Athenian democracy.

Darius I

550 BCE

Darius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE.

Xerxes

519 BCE

Xerxes I, byname Xerxes the Great, the son and successor of Darius I. He is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont (480 BCE), a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. His ultimate defeat spelled the beginning of the decline of the Achaemenian Empire.

Democracy

507 BCE

In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or “rule by the people”. It was the first known democracy in the world.

Pericles

495 BCE

Pericles 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. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically-influential Alcmaeonid family.

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.

Battle of Marathon

490 BCE

The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes.

Second Persian War

480 BCE

The second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC) occurred during the Greco-Persian Wars, as King Xerxes I of Persia sought to conquer all of Greece. The invasion was a direct, if delayed, response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece (492–490 BC) at the Battle of Marathon, which ended Darius I's attempts to subjugate Greece.

Battle of Thermopylae

479 BCE

The 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.

Socrates

470 BCE

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.

Parthenon Completed

432 BCE

The Parthenon was completed in 432 BC

Peloponnesian Wars

431 BCE

The Peloponnesian War fought between ancient Athens and Sparta (who won) and their respective allies came in two stages, the first from c. 460 to 446 BCE and the second and more significant war from 431 to 404 BCE. Sparta won, making the the most powerful city-state in their region.

Plato

424 BCE

Plato 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.

Catapult

400 BCE

The catapult was an ancient siege machine that could hurl heavy objects or shoot arrows with great force and for considerable distances. Some catapults could throw stones weighing as much as 350 pounds for distances greater than 300 feet.

The Academy in Athens

387 BCE

The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC)

Aristotle

384 BCE

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition.

Philip II

382 BCE

Philip II of Macedon 382–336 BC) was the king (basileus) of the kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the third son of King Amyntas III of Macedon, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III.

Alexander the Great

356 BCE

Alexander III of Macedon was a king (basileus) of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon[a] and a member of the Argead dynasty.

Battle of Chaeronea

338 BCE

The 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. The battle was the culmination of Philip's final campaigns in 339-338 BC and resulted in a decisive victory for the Macedonians.

League of Corinth

338 BCE

The League of Corinth, also referred to as the Hellenic League, was a confederation of Greek states created by Philip II during the winter of 338 BC/337 BC after the Battle of Chaeronea and succeeded by Alexander the Great at 336 BC, to facilitate the use of military forces in the war of Greece against Persia.