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Period: 1750 BCE to 1300 BCE
Agamemnon
Agamemnon, in Greek legend, king of Mycenae or Argos. He was the son of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and his wife Aërope and was the brother of Menelaus. Agamemnon's spirit telling Odysseus how he was murdered on his long journey home, Odysseus visits the Land of the Departed Spirits, where he encounters the spirit of Agamemnon. Electra and Orestes killing Aegisthus Electra and Orestes killing Aegisthus Electra and Orestes killing Aegisthus in the presence of their mother, Clytemnestra. -
776 BCE
First Olympic Games
The ancient Olympic Games were primarily a part of a religious festival in honor of Zeus, the father of the Greek gods and goddesses. The festival and the games were held in Olympia, a rural sanctuary site. And on the middle day of the games, 100 oxen would be sacrificed to him. To sum it up, the ancient Olympic games greatly influenced the modern Olympic games by that the original games show many similar qualities as the modern Olympic games. -
620 BCE
Draco’s Code of Law
The Draconian constitution, or Draco's code, was a written law code created by Draco near the end of the 7th century BC in response to the unjust interpretation and modification of oral law by Athenian aristocrats. -
Period: 550 BCE to 486 BCE
Darius I
Once Prince of Persia. One of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects.
Darius attempted several times to conquer Greece. Darius the Great was an Achaemenid ruler noted for his administrative genius, his great building projects, and his benevolence toward the diverse peoples under his sovereignty. His policies and building projects helped fortify his vast empire and enhance trade throughout. -
Period: 546 BCE to 520 BCE
The Rise of Tyrants
It brought with it a series of political reforms that created the system of democracy. As time passed and their populations grew, many of these agricultural city-states began to produce consumer goods such as pottery, cloth, wine and metalwork. The great tyrants were notable patrons of the arts and conspicuous builders. They often aided in the transition from narrow aristocracy to more-democratic constitutions, but the Greeks in principle chafed under their illegal autocracy. -
Period: 519 BCE to 465 BCE
Xerxes
Xerxes I was a Persian ruler of the Achaemenid Empire, who ruled from 486 to 465 BCE. Upon ascending the throne, Xerxes mercilessly put down rebellions in Egypt and Babylon, demanding that all conquered cities treat him as their one king. He is best known for his massive invasion of Greece from across the Hellespont, a campaign marked by the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea. -
507 BCE
Democracy
The Greek idea of democracy was different from present-day democracy because, in Athens, all adult citizens were required to take an active part in the government. Another important ancient Greek concept that influenced the formation of the United States government was the written constitution. In Athens, every citizen could speak his mind and vote at a large assembly that met to create laws. The original U.S. voting system had some similarities with that of Athens. -
Period: 495 BCE to 429 BCE
Pericles
Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. Under his leadership Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire flourished, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece between the Greco-Persian and Peloponnesian wars. -
Period: 492 BCE to 490 BCE
First Persian War
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 in 490 BC. The Ionian Revolt remains significant as the first major conflict between Greece and the Persian Empire, as well as the first phase of the Persian Wars. Darius vowed to exact revenge against Athens, and developed a plan to conquer all Greeks in an attempt to secure the stability of his empire. -
490 BCE
Battle of Marathon
Battle of Marathon, in the Greco-Persian Wars, decisive battle fought on the Marathon plain of northeastern Attica in which the Athenians, in a single afternoon, repulsed the first Persian invasion of Greece. Marathon did not end the wars against Persia, but was the first turning point in establishing the success of the Greek, and specifically Athenian way, which would eventually give rise to all western culture as we know it. According to some, Marathon is the most important battle in history. -
Period: 482 BCE to 479 BCE
Second Persian War
The Athenians and Spartans led the Greek resistance. About a tenth of the Greek city-states joined the 'Allied' effort; most remained neutral or submitted to Xerxes. The invasion began in spring 480 BC, when the Persian army crossed the Hellespont and marched through Thrace and Macedon to Thessaly. This war led to the golden age. -
480 BCE
Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae, (480 bce), battle in central Greece at the mountain pass of Thermopylae during the Persian Wars. After three days of holding their own against the Persian king Xerxes I and his vast southward-advancing army, the Greeks were betrayed, and the Persians were able to outflank them. While the Battle was technically a defeat for the Greek coalition, It marked the beginning of several important Greek victories against the Persians and represented a morale shift among the Greeks. -
Period: 469 BCE to 399 BCE
Socrates
Socrates was 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. An enigmatic figure, he made no writings, and is known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers writing after his lifetime, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon. His Socratic method laid the groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy. -
432 BCE
Parthenon Completion
The Parthenon was the center of religious life in the powerful Greek City-State of Athens, the head of the Delian League. It was the largest and most lavish temple the Greek mainland had ever seen. It was a symbol of the power, wealth and elevated culture of Athens. -
Period: 431 BCE to 401 BCE
Peloponnesian Wars
It was a war fought in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta—the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. This war shifted power from Athens to Sparta, making Sparta the most powerful city-state in the region. As a Spartan ally, Corinth resumed hostilities toward Athens when Athens threatened Corinth’s interests in the region surrounding Corcyra. The Spartan army began by raiding lands within an Athenian allied territory, particularly a region near Athens called Attica. -
Period: 428 BCE to 348 BCE
Plato
Plato believed that reality is an imperfect reflection of a perfect ideal called the Forms. Like the dualism of reality, Plato also believed that humans are of a dual nature: body and mind. Plato is considered by many to be the most important philosopher who ever lived. He is known as the father of idealism in philosophy. His ideas were elitist, with the philosopher king the ideal ruler. Plato is perhaps best known to college students for his parable of a cave, which appears in Plato's Republic. -
400 BCE
Catapult
The catapult was an ancient siege machine that could hurl heavy objects or shoot arrows with great force and for considerable distances. The Greek Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, who was looking to develop a new type of weapon, invented the catapult. Catapult, mechanism for forcefully propelling stones, spears, or other projectiles, in use mainly as a military weapon since ancient times. -
Period: 387 BCE to 83 BCE
The Academy in Athens
The Academy was founded by Plato in c. 387 BC in Athens. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. The site of the Academy is located near Colonus. The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens. The site was perhaps also associated with the twin hero-gods Castor and Polydeuces, since the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the brothers where the abductor Theseus had hidden their sister Helen. -
Period: 385 BCE to 323 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle is a towering figure in ancient Greek philosophy, who made important contributions to logic, criticism, rhetoric, physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. He was a student of Plato for twenty years but is famous for rejecting Plato's theory of forms. He invented the field of formal logic, and he identified the various scientific disciplines and explored their relationships to each other -
Period: 382 BCE to 336 BCE
Philip II
18th king of Macedonia, who restored internal peace to his country and by 339 had gained domination over all of Greece by military and diplomatic means, thus laying the foundations for its expansion under his son Alexander III the Great. Philip II became Macedonia's leader in 359, and was officially its king by 357. He used skilled military and diplomatic tactics to expand his country's territory and influence, and ended up dominating almost of all of his neighboring Greek city-states. -
Period: 356 BCE to 323 BCE
Alexander the Great
He united the entire ancient world under one rule. But he did more than just build the greatest empire the world had ever seen, Alexander spread Western philosophy, science and mathematics throughout that empire.The most significant legacy of Alexander was the range and extent of the proliferation of Greek culture. "The reign of Alexander the Great signaled the beginning of a new era in history known as the Hellenistic Age. Greek culture had a powerful influence on the areas Alexander conquered. -
338 BCE
Battle of Chaeronea
Chaeronea was the final battle of this campaign, where Philip II and his son Alexander claimed a decisive victory, effectively uniting Greece under their control. This battle represented the end of independent Greek city-states, and led to the formation of the Macedonian Empire. -
337 BCE
League of Cornith
The League of Corinth, 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, to facilitate the use of military forces in the war of Greece vs Persia. The name 'League of Corinth' was invented by modern historians due to the first council of the League being in Corinth. It was the first time in history that most of the Greek states managed to become part of a single political entity. -
Period: 12 BCE to 8 BCE
Homer
Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.
