Ancient Greece

Start of the Cyclades culture

3000 BCE

Start of the Minoan civilisation

2500 BCE

Mycenaean civilisation declining

1600 BCE

Eruption of volcano on Thera

1500 BCE

First recorded Olympic Games

776 BCE

Homer creditied with writing the Illiad and the Odyssey - two important and influential poems

750 BCE

First Greek colonies established on the island now known as Sicily

720 BCE

Female poet Sappho born on the Greek island of Lesbos

610 BCE

Cleisthenes the 'father of democracy' reforms the constitution to create equal rights for all Greek citizens.

508 BCE

Battle of Marathon (First Persian War)

490 BCE

Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis (Second Persian War)

480 BCE

Construction of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens starts

447 BCE

Sparta defeats Athens, ending the Peloponnesian War and becomes the supreme power in ancient Greece.

404 BCE

Alexander the Great dies after defeating the Persians and setting up an empire that spread Greek culture

323 BCE

Rome finally defeats Macedon, forcing it to give up the Greek city states it formerly controlled

197 BCE

Rome conquers Corinth, the last resisting city state in Greece

146 BCE